Drowned
by lin-ifyouplease
Summary: A young girl is found in a lake, completely submerged and nearly drowning, when she is taken to the police station, she requests to see one person and one person only. The McCall family are about to face a harsh reality when an old memory of Agent McCall's past comes for a visit to Beacon Hills. Rated M for slightly mature content
1. Chapter 1

**AN: So this is my very first Teen Wolf fic, so I hope you like it!**

It was like a shock of electricity ran through Scott McCall's entire body. Now he couldn't feel a thing, yet he could feel everything. He felt confused, dazed, and frightened, yet somehow relaxed and secure. He felt like he was floating, even though he was sitting on his own bed making dents into the mattress. It was like his mind was in a dream while his body remained awake.

He nearly jumped out of his own skin once he heard his phone ring on the bedside table next to him. On the screen there was a picture of a far too familiar face which was smiling with his thumb straight up in the air on his left hand.

"Hey man," Scott said, when he answered the phone.

"Dude," Stiles said, breathing heavily, "The weirdest thing just happened to me."

"What?" he asked, his eyes widening.

"I don't know, man," he explained, "It was like a bolt of energy or something came over me and then I just really weird inside, like I was feeling someone else's senses other than my own," there was a quick silence, "I already went through the whole demon posession thing once, I'd prefer not to go through it again."

"I don't think this is the Nogitsune," Scott answered, "I think this is different. Someone's in trouble."

"How do you know?"

"Because I just felt the same thing."

They met up in the woods only moments after their phone conversation had ended. Scott always knew when someone was in trouble, but if Stiles, a mere human, could feel something was wrong too, then it had to be important enough for both of them to go after whatever was happening.

"What do you think happened?" Stiles asked as they were roaming around in the fallen leaves.

"I don't know," Scott sighed, "I guess I felt I was floating, kind of dazed and relaxed."

"There had to have been more," Stiles insisted, "I mean, I felt panicked, frightened, and shaken up quite a bit."

"So whoever is in trouble can't be on land," Scott concluded, "They have to be imprisoned somewhere that seems comfortable, but is really an unknown location, possibly in the air or..."

They both turned their heads and saw a large lake next to them with a couple of stones that lead to it.

"You don't think-." Stiles began, but Scott was too quick.

Scott ran to the rocks and climbed up on one of them, flashing his red eyes into the water to see if he would get some kind of response in case it was a werewolf trapped down there.

"That explains the floating," Scott said.

"And the scared thing," Stiles nodded.

The water began to rustle just a little bit, as if something moved slightly underneath the dark surface.

"I saw something!" Scott called.

Stiles approached the water, but didn't come as close as Scott did, "Like what?"

"I think I saw..." he said, squinting, "Is that hair?"

"Hair?" Stiles said, raising his eyebrows.

"Like long human brown hair," Scott repeated.

He leaned in closer, his hand securely on a rock on one side of him as he looked closer to the water. Suddenly, a head popped out of the water with long strands of wet brown hair hanging at the sides of her cheeks. She looked frightened as she bobbed in the water.

"Oh my god," Stiles gasped, "I'm calling my dad."

"You do that," Scott agreed, then began to take off his jacket for the girl, "Hey, are you okay? Are you cold?"

The girl wasn't shivering, but she looked up at Scott and reciprocated a look of fear and surprise at what she thought she had seen in the water just a few moments ago.

"You're one of them..." the girl whispered.

"What?" Scott asked.

"You are one of them, aren't you?" the girl asked as Scott reached his arms into the water and pulled the girl out and placing her on a rock. She was wearing a green bathing suit top with purple shorts.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Scott said, shaking his head, "Do you need help? Do you want us to call someone for you?"

The girl looked from the rocks on the shore to Scott with a sweet determination in her eyes, "Take me to see Agent McCall..."


	2. Chapter 2

Stiles drove the girl covered in water in his car with Scott in the passenger seat. She was lying down on the ground with her hands folded neatly between her cheek and the seat with her eyes closed and a smile a vacant expression on her light pink lips. Scott continued to look behind his shoulder at the girl, just checking to see if she had moved every 30 seconds.

"She's okay," Stiles assured him, "I can see her in my rear view mirror. She isn't moving."

Scott relaxes his muscles and sat back in his chair, "I guess I just kinda feel like she's gonna break... I don't wanna be responsible for that if she gets hurt."

"That's that hero instinct in you," Stiles teased, "You ALWAYS have to save an innocent damsel in distress."

"What?" Scott asked.

"You bring in a girl who begs to see your dad and you just HAVE to do what she says because she bats her little eyelashes at you," he chuckled.

"If you had just seen how terrified she was," Scott corrected him, "Anyone would have done the same if you had seen how scared she was."

Stiles looked into the rear view mirror once again, then started to catch himself doing it several times, sometimes staring for a little bit too long when he should have been keeping her safe by watching the road.

When they arrived at the police station, Scott and Stiles woke up the sleeping girl as if she was a child or some kind of delicate angel. She was wrapped in Scott's jacket as she walked on bare feet through the front door and into the sheriff's office, where Agent McCall was found sitting in a chair in front of Sheriff Stilinski's desk.

"So..." Scott said as he walked in, "I hate to interrupt, but Stiles and I were taking a little walk by the lake when we found a little surprise in the water."

"Who's this?" Sheriff asked, looking at the confused girl with now dry and wavy hair.

There was complete silence. The girl peeked her head past Scott's shoulder and saw Agent McCall sitting there in all of his glory as he watched with a dazed expression towards the two boys in front of her.

"Arielle," Agent McCall whispered as he stood up.

"Wait..." Stiles froze, "Her name is Arielle? Like as in "The Little Mermaid", Ariel?"

"It's spelled differently," he answered, staring at the girl with stunning brown eyes, "A-R-I-E-L-LE."

"But stil, Ariel?" Stiles continued, "Like the disney princess-."

"Hi..." she whispered, pushing past the two boys.

"What happened to you?" he asked, pushing Scott and Stiles out of his way, "I thought you were still in Arizona."

"Rex could only watch after me for so long," she answered, "I had to find you... I didn't feel safe there."

After a little talking, Agent McCall offered to let Arielle stay in the McCall house until she could get his friend, Rex, to come to California and get her. Nothing else was said. Scott didn't know how he knew the girl and who she was to him, and he would probably never give her an answer. It was weird how he could feel everything she felt, so she couldn't have simply been a random girl to come and go in only an instant.

Melissa was taking a night shift at the hospital, so Arielle went into the bathroom and turned on the water, letting the tub fill up to the very brim. She hadn't been in the water with just her and her bare skin in ages. She always had to wear a bathing suit to a pool or the lake and Rex never let her take a bath because he thought it was dangerous for her to be submerged for too long.

It was an hour later when Scott had noticed that Arielle wasn't in sight inside the house. He knocked softly on the bathroom door.

"Arielle?" he asked.

"Yes?" her soft voice responded, "Is that Scott?"

"Yeah," he answered, "Are you okay in there? you've been in there for nearly an hour."

"I'm fine," she assured him, "I just like being in the water."

"Oh..." he said, his eyes widening in surprise, "So what brings you to Beacon Hills?"

"Agent McCall," she said, swirling the water around in the tub, "He makes me feel safer."

"I see," he nodded awkwardly.

"Plus, I am tired of being alone," she added.

"What about that Rex guy?" Scott asked.

She chuckled, "He's half the man he says he is."

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell ringing. Scott places his hand on the door.

"I'll be right back," he called, "Don't leave the bathroom till I say, okay?"

"Fine," she answered.

Scott went to the door and opened it to reveal an anxious Stiles, tapping his fingers at a fast pace against his leg. He was looking down at the porch, but once he looked up at Scott, he seemed determined and nervous.

"Hey," Stiles breathed.

"Hey man," Scott said, "What's up?"

"Is... she here?" he asked.

"Who?" Scott asked, raising one eyebrow.

"You know..." his voice grew to a whisper, "Arielle."

"Oh," Scott nodded, "She's in... the shower right now."

"Oh okay," he nodded.

Scott moved to the side to let Stiles into the house. Only a few moments later, while Scott and Stiles discussed the McCall's new house guest, Melissa McCall came into the house and threw her bag onto the ground next to the door and her keys into the bowl that rested on the table.

"Have you ever felt like this before?" Stiles asked as she walked into the living room behind the boys.

"The real question is, have you," Scott said, "You're not... like me... how is it that you could feel what she was feeling?"

"But you could too," Stiles argued, "It's not like feeling when someone else is in trouble is a wolf-thing."

"What exactly is not like a wolf thing?" Melissa asked.

The boys jumped at the sound of her voice and spun themselves around with their mouthes wide open.

"Hey mom," Scott waved stiffly.

"Melissa," Stiles nodded.

"So here's the thing," Scott explained, "Dad has this friend-."

"Who's our age," Stiles added.

"Yeah," Scott nodded, "and we found her in this lake, which is a little weird, but she said she wanted to see him and he let her stay the night and she's kind of in your bathtub as we speak."

Melissa opened her mouth to speak, but then began to look into the dead air to process all of this.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"In the yard," Scott answered.

She nodded, then looked at the ground before shouting, "RAFAEL!" she called.

Agent McCall came into the house after closing the screen door behind him.

"Hey Melissa," he said, "Is something wrong?"

"Who is this house guest of ours and when is she leaving?" Melissa asked.

"Oh come on, Mel-."

"I know I said you could move back in for Scott's sake of having both his parents, but that doesn't mean you can just invite whomever you want to stay with you," Melissa argued, "I don't even know who this girl is and she's already using my bathroom!"

Agent McCall hushed her and grabbed her shoulders, "I know this may sound bad," he nodded, "but you have to understand that this girl's safety means everything to me..."

"Isn't that her parents' job?" she argued.

"Yes, but her parental situation is... complicated."

"Then doesn't that mean we should send her into the foster care system?"

Stiles jumped up onto his feet, "No! There has to be another way."

Scott looked at Stiles with a peculiar expression.

"Who is this girl?" Melissa hissed.

He took a deep breath as Scott and Stiles leaned into listen harder, "She's... she's my... I'm her Juvenile Probation Officer."

Everyone's eyebrows raised as they processed the big confession as to the identity of this girl. Not only was she a mysterious person, but she also had a criminal record, and a big enough one to need a probation officer around her at all times.

It made sense to Melissa, now that she thought about it a little more. It was in his job description to watch after this girl now, and leaving her in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of strangers wasn't the best thing for him. That's why her safety was so important to him, plus, she seemed like a sweet girl, from what she heard from Stiles and Scott. Now that Agent McCall was certain they believed his story, it gave him a little more time figure out how to tell them the truth.


	3. Chapter 3

Agent McCall wasn't going to get away with having a teenage girl live in his house without sending her to some kind of school event without Melissa getting on his case about it. The only reasonable solution was to send her to school under the protection of Scott and Stiles. Melissa was a little uncomfortable with the thought, but she was always assured by Scott whenever the subject came up. No one could really blame poor Melissa for not feeling comfortable with the situation, especially since she still didn't even know the girl's name. Agent McCall refused to tell Melissa her name and always referred to Arielle as "her".

During the hours of school at Beacon Hill High School, Arielle never went anywhere that wasn't beside either Scott or Stiles. She feared different colored eyes staring at her as she walked down the hallway. She didn't want people to assume things about her just because she didn't say anything to anyone else except the two boys who stood protectively on either side of her.

The lunch rush scared Arielle even more than she could have ever imagined. There were so many students piled one on top of the other trying to push past each other like it was a desert storm. Once she entered the large social space, she felt slightly overwhelmed. Scott pointed to a table full of other girls with perfectly curled hair and smooth skin with beautiful eyes and expensive looking clothes. Arielle stepped back and hid behind Stiles for comfort.

"Hey," Stiles said, placing his hand on her back, "It's okay."

"These are just our friends," Scott said.

"But I don't know them," Arielle protested quietly.

"You didn't know us as of Saturday," Stiles suggested.

Arielle looked between him and Scott, then nodded and stared at the floor as they walked towards the table.

"Hey guys," Allison waved.

"Hey," Scott said, taking a seat next to Kira and kissing her cheek, "How did that history assignment go for you this weekend?"

Kira shrugged, "More or less a breeze," she bragged.

"That's what happens when your dad teaches the class," Stiles teased.

The asian girl chuckled and moved her torso forward only to catch a glimpse of the girl hiding her face behind thick locks of straight black hair with an innocent and light air about her.

"Who is this?" Kira asked.

Lydia and Allison looked away from each other at the shy girl, causing Arielle to sink back further into her seat.

"Lydia, Allison, Kira," Scott said, "This is Arielle."

Arielle picked her hand up slightly, then twitched her fingers while looking above at them.

"Like the mermaid princess story," Lydia nodded.

"You see!" Stiles pointed aggressively at Lydia, "I told you!"

Scott laughed, "She's staying at my house for a few days until her guardian can pick her up from Arizona."

"Wow," Kira said, widening her eyes, "So you're from Arizona. What brings you here?"

Arielle brushed a lock of her hair away from her face, "Agent McCall is my probation officer."

Kira nodded awkwardly, "Oh..."

"Don't be frightened," Arielle said comfortingly, "I never mean to be scary. It's just a few things from my past that are a little scratchy, that's all."

There was uncomfortable silence which followed that comment. She seemed so calm and okay with the last phrase she said, which slightly scared the other girls. They sat back in their chairs and began to eat their sandwiches with precision and delicacy. Arielle watched how un-seemingly perfect they were. It was like they weren't even real people, almost.

"So..." Scott said, patting his fingers on the table, "Arielle... how would you like to hang out with the girls sometime? It might be fun to hang out with your own kind for a while."

Arielle tensed up and scooted closer towards Scott and looking over at Stiles who was watching her as if she was a glass doll that could break if it wasn't placed in the right position.

"That's okay," she insisted, "I feel much better with the two of you by my side..."

Stiles shrugged as if he wasn't going to argue with her, and Scott couldn't argue with his best friend, no matter how hard he tried. The girls all glared at each other, as if there had to be something wrong with one of them to make another girl prefer the boys over the three of them. Stiles looked at them and mouthed the word "shy" under his head when Arielle wasn't looking. They nodded after him and continued to eat.

Towards the end of the day, Scott had given Arielle the unfortunate news that he and Stiles had lacrosse practice and she had to be on her own for a little bit until they came back. Instead of wandering around the school or sitting in the library and doing new school work, she waited outside of the boys locker room and stared at the wall in front of her, imaging whatever she wanted. As she began to get lost in her own findings inside her mind, a group of boys approached her with their lacrosse sticks over their shoulders.

"Hey," one of them said, "Look who it is."

"I know you," the other one grinned, "The new girl. What are you doing outside the boys locker room?"

"Waiting for someone," Arielle replied under her breath, but the boys couldn't hear her, so they chuckled in response.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," the first one said smoothly, "I couldn't quite hear you."

Arielle lifted her head so she was looking at each boy rather than at the floor, "I am waiting for someone."

"Ooh," the second boy said happily, "Am I that lucky someone? I'd sure like to be."

"Sorry," she shrugged, "No."

"That's too bad," the second boy said, patting the back of the first boy, "Maybe my buddy here is the one."

"I highly doubt that," she protested.

"Are you sure?" the same boy asked, "Why don't you take a better look?"

The first boy slowly approached Arielle with a look of lust in his eyes as they grew wider and wider.

"No, it's okay," she said, pressing her hand against his chest as he gradually got closer to her.

"Maybe you need a little stimulation to help you remember," the first boy said, placing his hand on her waist.

"I mean it," she said sternly, "Please, get off me."

He whispered into her ear, "No."

Arielle didn't know how to defend herself this way. This was more different than anything she had ever experienced in her entire life. She had never felt so unsafe in her entire life, and now all she wanted to do was sink down onto the floor and disappear forever. There was nothing in the world quite like this fear, now she wished she hadn't left the lake, or Arizona, at all. All she wanted was for someone to see reason.

"Arielle?" a soft voice called from a distance, then she heard several footsteps and the voice grew louder, "Arielle!?"

"Stiles?" she breathed.

The first boy turned around and saw Stiles standing there like a scared fish out of water.

"Stilinski, this is yours?" he asked, his eyes squinting in disbelief.

"That's a girl," Stiles said proudly, "and I suggest you listen to her when she says no, you little perv."

She could feel the anger and fright boiling up in my stomach, like a ticking time bomb that was growing more and more powerful as each second ticked on by. Any moment now that bomb would burst and disaster would be splattered all over the walls and on the floor. That's when the pipe burst and water came falling from the ceiling and onto the ground, causing the dusty brown walls to turn dark brown as the water hit the surface.

"What the hell?" the second boy asked.

The boys looked at each other, then pushed past Arielle into the door to the locker room. Stiles was still standing there, and he didn't move.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She didn't move. The pipe bursting didn't phase her. She just watched as the water fell from the metal tube onto the floor. Her heart rate was getting quicker and faster. There was something dangerous happening to her, she could feel it in her gut, as if it was being stabbed and forced to burst open just like the pipes. It was almost unbearable. Arielle threw her hands into her hair as if to keep her brain from exploding. Her breathing was accelerating.

"I-I can't," she whispered, "I thought I could do it..."

Just then, she bolted down the hallway in a full on sprint with Stiles just on her tail, calling after her and begging to talk with her. Eventually he chased her to an empty hallway in the school where she sat there on the floor against some lockers with her eyes closed and her head facing the ceiling.

"What's wrong?" he asked, taking a seat next to her, "I know those guys are jerks... and they shouldn't have touched you. I'm sorry."

"That's not what I ran from," she shook her head, then looked at Stiles.

"Then what?" he said, tilting his head slightly to look dead into her eyes.

"I have a secret," she whispered, "but you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay?"

Stiles nodded, "but let me ask you something first... when Scott found you... you said that he was one of 'them'... what does that mean?"

Arielle took a deep breath, "It means I know he's a werewolf. I saw it in the color of his eyes. They called to me and demanded me to reach the surface... I just hadn't seen a real True Alpha before."

"Wow..." Stiles said, shaking his head and blinking several times, "You knew all that just with red eyes?"

"I also know that his girlfriend is a kitsune," she said, looking straight out in front of her, "I know that you had a Nogitsune trapped inside your body... I know that the strawberry blonde is a banshee, and I know the pale one is a hunter."

Stiles opened his mouth to respond, but he didn't know what to respond with. He would ask how she knew all of that stuff, but then she would have said the answer to his next question, so he went with the ladder, then took a deep breath.

"Arielle...?" he asked, "Are you... more special than others?"

Arielle closed her eyes and let her head hit the back of the lockers again, "By special, you mean being able to tell the species of a person just by looking at them... then yes... you could say that..."

He took a moment and stared at the tiles beneath him, then he looked at her distressed figures, then placed his hand gently on her shoulder.

"What else?" he asked, "There has to be something you're hiding from me..."

Arielle looked from the ceiling to him and nodded. She then picked up her right hand and reached it across the hall to the water fountains directly in front of her.

"Promise me you won't runaway and tell people," she begged.

Stiles sat up on his knees so he was facing her directly, "I promise."

She nodded, then directed all of her energy towards the water fountain, feeling each pipe and every last drop of water inside the drain. Only moments later, an string of liquid water came floating out of the spout and it floated in the air just above the fountain. With a twist of her hand, it turned into a ball and she brought it towards them. Stiles watched in awe at her focus and her talent as she guided the ball of water with grace and dignity as if this was all she had worked for all her life.

"You thirsty?" she grinned.

Arielle directed the ball of water towards Stiles and he opened his mouth. She pushed her hand closer to him and let the ball of water fit perfectly into his mouth as he swallowed all of it. His eyes widened at what he had just seen.

"Okay... so that happened," he said into the air in front of him.

"Are you going to turn me in now?" she asked shyly.

"What?" he asked, trying to look at her hidden face, "Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm different," she answered, "because I can do things other kids can't. Most people don't like things that are different from them, so they make public of their difference so they can be condemned and judged."

He sighed, "What makes you think I'm like everybody else?"

Arielle looked up at Stiles and, for the first time, she smiled at him.


	4. Chapter 4

Scott picked up Arielle on his bike and together they drove very safely and slowly back to Scott and Melissa's house. She held on very tightly even if they were going at a speed where she couldn't feel the wind rushing against her face and pushing back her hair. Arielle had told Scott what happened with those two boys after lacrosse practice, and he had no choice but to call Melissa and let her know what happened and why Arielle would be a little shaken up.

That came back to bite him as he walked through the door with Arielle safely behind him.

"Scott," Agent McCall said, standing with his arms crossed and a sour look on his face, "Your mother informed me on today's current events. Care to explain?"

"Before you get mad," Scott said calmly, "Let me just say that I wasn't gone for very long, and it wasn't my fault. She told me she found her way away from those guys and Stiles was watching after her the whole time."

"I gave you one job," Agent McCall said angrily, "That was to watch this juvenile delinquent with your life and make sure nothing happens to her... and now this happens. Just great."

"I'm sorry," he said softly, "I still have time to redeem myself, don't I?"

"For your sake," he answered sternly, "and for mine, it'd be best if you spent time with her as a friend rather than a rare caged animal. She is very important to me, so I'd like for you two to get to know each other a little better. That way protecting her won't seem like such a chore. Understood?"

Arielle came out from behind Scott and nodded in response. And spend more time together they did. The next Saturday, Scott suggested that the two of them put on workout clothes and go for a little exercise. What Agent McCall and Melissa wouldn't know is that they were out in the woods. Arielle agreed that it was the best path to use for a run. So, they went out in the afternoon into the woods and ran for nearly a half an hour beside each other, trying to test each other's limits and use different obstacles like trees and roots that stuck out of the ground.

Once they ran out of breath, Scott called for a time out and rested his upper body weight on his knees, propping himself up with his hands.

"I didn't know you could run so fast," Scott breathed heavily.

Arielle nodded, out of breath as well, "I didn't know you could either."

"Do you wanna take a break before we head back out?" he asked.

"Sure," she said, leaning against a fallen tree trunk, "So do you usually do this?"

"Only for school," he said, "My girlfriend does this sometimes."

"Kira?" she asked, "She's pretty nice."

"Yeah, she's cool," Scott agreed, "We used to run this course together during cross country season."

"I never get to run like this," Arielle added, "Rex never let me out of his sight, so I always ran on sidewalks while he drove alongside me. I could never go fast."

"Ever?" he asked.

"Never," she answered, "You know what? I like being a little dangerous today. No one knows we're out in the woods, we get to run fast... I never get to feel like that."

"Why?" he asked, "Cause your probation officer demands it of you?"

She looked down at the ground and shook her head, "It's like I'm his precious diamond... I'm not allowed to do anything without someone he trusts near me. What happened with those two boys is the first time something bad has ever happened to me..."

"Really?" he asked, widening his eyes, "You've never gotten into any trouble before?"

"Well... not really," she shrugged, "I mean, in my opinion, a worse thing has happened to me... I was ripped from my mother's arms at birth."

Scott opened his mouth and sighed, "Jeez... I'm sorry."

"My dad left me with Rex and then moved on with his life," she continued, "Then I had no one."

"You have your probation officer," Scott said, "That's good, right?"

She shook her head, "He's the one who took me from my mother's arms..."

"What?" Scott asked, "My dad took you your mother?"

Arielle suddenly looked at him, her face frozen with her mouth open and her eyes wide with surprise.

"Your dad...?" she breathed.

"Yeah," he answered.

She choked out air as if she had been punched right in the gut, "Oh my..."

"What?" Scott asked, concerned, as he scooted himself closer to her, "Are you okay?"

"Agent McCall," she said, "He's your father?"

"Yes," Scott nodded.

A look of grief and happiness then washed over her face at the same time, "He's my father too..."

"What?" he asked.

"It's true," she insisted, "He's always hidden me, made sure that I can't be linked to one of the most famous FBI agents in Arizona. That's why he says he's my probation officer, to keep my identity safe... but he's really my dad. Always has been and always will be..."

Scott then dropped his jaw and widened his eyes as well, "My dad had another kid?"

"Apparently so," Arielle nodded, "I mean, I saw some similarities between you, but I didn't think that meant anything..."

"Arielle," he said, gripping his hands onto her shoulders, "Do you know what this means?"

"What?" she asked, frightened.

"You're not just some random girl who popped into our lives," he said, "Arielle... you're my sister..."

It took her a moment to process this. First, she had finally told someone, other than Rex, that her probation officer was really her father, and now that person just so happens to be her half brother. Arielle had always wanted a sibling to share her life with, and now she finally had that. Scott was standing right in front of her with a smile on his face. She couldn't help but throw herself into her brother's arms for the first time to meet and warm and protective embrace who understood her and accepted her. This was what she had been longing for since she was a child, a real family.

"Wait..." Arielle sniffed, "If we have the same father... then that means you can help me find out who my mother is, can't you?"

"Of course," he nodded, "Anything... I feel like I owe you so much right now. You've been so alone and so isolated from everything. I bet you must have been dying for a brother or sister or something."

"It's okay," she said calmly, "You have plenty of time to put hair dye into my shower head or lock me in the bathroom on the night of the big dance or point at me and say you're not touching me... but let's just talk to our dad first, okay?"

"Our dad," he said, "Let's do that."

The two of them sprinted towards the bike and drove a little faster than usual, simply because of all the adrenaline and excitement within Scott and Arielle. They arrived at the house only a few moments later and they both ran into the house to see Melissa at the dinning room table.

"Hey guys," she greeted, "How was your walk?"

"Fine," Scott answered, "Where's dad?"

"Right here," Agent McCall said, bringing a cup of coffee to the table and placing it in front of Melissa, "What's going on? Are you okay, Arielle?"

"I'm fine," she said, "_Dad_..."

Agent McCall's eyebrows suddenly hit the ceiling and Melissa coughed several times. Scott quickly went to her side and patted her on the back.

"Arielle, not now," Agent McCall cautioned.

"It's okay, dad," Scott said, "We both know. We both told the truth and now we both know that we're your son and daughter."

Agent McCall stood there, dumbfounded, without saying a single word. It ached at Arielle's nerves that he couldn't do anything in reaction.

"So you lied to me," she said, "You lied to me for 17 YEARS about me not having a family who wanted me when my brother was here all along... and you have NOTHING to say?" Silence. "Fine... then I guess it's time for me to say something... Who is my mother?"

"Arielle-."

"Don't tell me she's not important," she protested, "because my mother would mean the world to me. She gave birth to me, she loved me, you _ripped_ me from her arms when all she ever wanted to do was love me. I want to know who she is."

"Please, not now," Agent McCall begged.

"Tell me!" Arielle screamed, then saw the distress in Melissa McCall's eyes. She was Scott's mother. She had wavy black hair and olive skin. She had the biggest brown eyes in the entire world. Arielle approached her and got on her knees in front of her.

"What is your name?" Melissa asked quietly, "He refused to tell me..."

"Arielle," she said quietly, "My name is Arielle Marisa McCall... and I think you're my mother..."

Melissa then began to form tears in her eyes as she pressed her fingers to her mouth.

"I am," she said, placing her hands on both of Arielle's cheeks, "And do you know how I know that?" Arielle shook her head, "Because... I told your father that I always wanted a daughter named Arielle..."

She couldn't hold in her joy and sadness any longer. Something in her gut told her to burst free, so she did. She and Melissa both stood up on their feet and hugged each other more tightly than they had ever been hugged before. This was what she wanted all those years in that shack with Rex by herself, staring up at the dark ceiling, wondering what it would be like to be in a mother's arms. This was it. It made tears form in her eyes as well. Melissa looked at Scott, who was watching them with a smile on his face. She opened an arm to him and he squeezed them both tightly to him. Finally, there was a two-story house in the suburbs with a fence and a backyard. Inside that house was a living room and a kitchen and 3 bedrooms with 4 bathrooms, and there was also a mom, a dad, a son/brother, and a daughter/sister. Arielle McCall had a family and a home.


	5. Chapter 5

It took several weeks for things to fall back into place. The entire household, including Agent McCall, was mad at Agent McCall for keeping Arielle, and everything she could have had, a secret. Melissa revealed to Scott and Arielle that after she got a divorce, she realized she was pregnant again. They stayed together until the baby was born and Melissa kept Scott and Agent McCall took Arielle. The rest was painful history that they wished they couldn't repeat. Of course, Arielle was still going to be mad at her father for keeping this from her, but she would forgive him eventually.

"Wait," Stiles said, as he and Scott were walking down the hallway, "You found out a month ago that Arielle is your sister?"

"Yeah," Scott said proudly.

"And you're just now telling me?" Stiles sassed, "Dude! What happened to best friends?"

"I'm sorry, man, but I wasn't allowed to tell anyone until we were okay with what we were gonna tell people," he defended, "I mean, I also have to kind of get used to having a sister before I tell everyone I have a sister."

"So are you used to it yet?" Stiles asked.

"To be honest, I don't think I'll ever get used to it," he said, "Think about it, out of nowhere, there's this girl who is my younger sister. Weird, right?"

"Not weird enough that you can't tell your best friend," Stiles said, raising his eyebrows, "What if I randomly get a sister and I don't tell you?"

"Then I'd understand," Scott said sweetly.

"Fuck you and your empathy," Stiles spat.

The school bell rang and Stiles got a smile on his face.

"What's got you so happy to go to class?" Scott asked, patting him on the back.

"Oh nothing," he said, chuckling, "It's just that I have class with your sister next period."

"Hey!" Scott said sternly, "Easy there. Remember, that's my baby sister."

"And I will treat her with the upmost respect," Stiles promised.

"Good man," Scott nodded, "If you don't, I might have to rip your head off."

Stiles walked down the other direction of the hallway, but threw his arms up in relief as he walked backwards away from his best friend.

"At long last," he exaggerated, "Scott McCall has finally found someone who means more to him than me. Bravo!"

Scott chuckled and walked up the stairs. Stiles went into his English class with no teacher at the front of the classroom. The most difficult thing for Stiles to do in a class without Scott, was find someone to sit with. Lydia had shut him out and was sitting amongst a group of drooling boys, so that wasn't an option, but there was a big clump of brown hair in the corner back of the classroom with one empty desk next to it.

"Cool if I sit here?" Stiles asked.

Arielle lifted her head from her paper she was doodling on, and smiled at him, "Of course."

He dropped his backpack beside the desk and sat in the chair, tapping his fingers against the table the second he sat down, trying to avoid any awkward silence with his best friend's sister.

"How are you?" Arielle asked, her head resting on her hand as she faced him.

It took a moment for him to realize that he was speaking to her, "Who me?"

She nodded sweetly, "Do I have any other friends in this class?"

He opened his mouth to protest, then he saw the groups of people in their tight knit cliques, not even glancing to a second at her, "I guess not," he shrugged, "Ummm... I'm alright. How about you?"

"Fairly well," she smiled, "I suppose that Scott's already told you about... you know."

"Yeah," he nodded, "He actually just told me right now... that's cool, you guys are brother and sister."

"It's very cool," she agreed, "A little weird, I'll admit, but very cool. There is one strange side effect."

"What's that?"

"My mom won't leave me alone," she said, rolling her eyes, "She walks me up to my room every night and she wakes me up every morning, then she drives me to school on her way to work, then she picks me up every day, and we have the longest conversations."

"That sounds nice," Stiles sighed, looking at his desk.

"I mean, I shouldn't be picky," she shook her head, "I haven't had a mom all of my life, and when I finally get one-."

"You should cherish her," Stiles said, slowly looking up at her, "because you never know the moment you're going to lose her..."

"Exactly..." Arielle said slowly.

"Alright class!" the english teacher called, breaking the daze between Arielle and Stiles and made them face to the front of the classroom, "Today, we're going to be going over the short stories you read for homework. I want you to get into pairs and share each other's work, maybe give some constructive criticism or some positive feedback. We'll group back together in 20 minutes. That should be plenty of time."

Arielle peaked only slightly at Stiles who was still sitting next to her and didn't retreat at the idea that they might have to work together.

"I guess that's us," Stiles said casually.

"Yeah, I guess so," she said, pulling out two pieces of paper and handed them to him.

"Oh!" Stiles gasped, rummaging through his several piles of paper as awkwardly as possible to find a slightly wrinkled packet, "Here... it's not my best work, but it's alright."

Arielle smiled at him and placed the story on her desk. She began to read about something that seemed so classically Shakespearean. The voice of the narrator was in the first person as they simply watched this princess in a balcony. The narrator explained every last detail, from the tip of her waste-length hair, to the smooth skin on her neck, to the beauty in her enchanting eyes. Arielle never knew that Stiles was this artistic with his words. In person, he was such a klutz and a bit of a goof, but it was his hilarity that made her want to be friends with him. Now, she was holding his carefully written out thoughts, and it was beautiful. She had never seen something so romantic in her entire life.

Unfortunately, his writing finished and the last line of the story ended with '_but I walked away, for she was a diamond amongst a dusty old mine, and I was simply a pebble, wishing to share her presence and be in her world, while all I could do was sit amongst the other dirty and remains of my broken heart_'.

"So," Stiles said, holding her story in his hand, "I think you could use a little more imagery. Imagery kind of paints the story out a little more, and that would really strengthen the plot you have going on here. Other than that, you have a solid piece of work here... I like how you wrote about a girl in this kind of awakening."

"It's the best topic I could write about," she shrugged, "I like your story."

"Thanks," he said, "It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to write about."

"It payed off," she nodded, "but I just have one things to say... if this man idolizes this princess, how come he doesn't give her a name? I think that if someone loves something enough, then it should have a name, that way they feel a deep personal connection to it. Also, by naming the princess, the line where it says she doesn't know his name, it makes the story that more heartbreaking that he has this deep passionate love for her that she'll never mirror."

Stiles looked towards the front of the room, to see the strawberry blonde girl with the red lips as she twirled her hair in her fingers and talked to the boys surrounding her, as if they were her personal flying monkeys.

"The princess is beautiful," Arielle continued.

"Lydia..." Stiles said, still looking at her.

"What?" Arielle asked, trying to gain his eye contact.

He finally shook his leg and looked at Arielle nervous, "Her name... her name is Lydia..."

"That's nice," Arielle said, now looking at the ground as she handed Stiles back his story.

It was an odd feeling that Arielle hadn't experienced before. For a moment there, she wanted to be that image of perfection, that princess in the balcony. She wanted to be Lydia, the one whom Stiles put up on a pedestal just to simply admire. It seemed like a perfect fantasy to be admired by somebody in that way; to be held in someone's arms and to be told that they would never let anyone take her away from them. Yes, it was a long shot, because she was knew in town and hardly knew anyone except her friends and new family.

Arielle carried these thoughts as she walked down the hallway with her books under arm. She heard several lockers close behind her, but they didn't make her slow down or speed up in any kind of way.

"Hey," a guy's voice called behind her, and her eyes grew wide, "You're Scott's sister, right?"

Arielle turned around only to see a boy who was unfamiliar to her.

"Sorry," he said, backing up a little bit, "Scott told me about what happened the last time some random guy came up and talked to you... I'm a friend of Scott's."

She squinted at the boy for a second, then saw the werewolf blood that ran through his veins. She saw the blue eyes that hid behind his chocolate brown eyes. That was something they had in common in some way. Then she began to recognize his face, the same one that was in her math class the other day.

"Do you..." she began, but then took a deep breath, "Do you have a brother? A twin, perhaps?"

"Ethan," he nodded, "I'm Ethan's twin, Aiden."

"Ah yes," Arielle said, holding out her hand to him, "Scott did tell me about you. I'm Arielle."

"Scott has told me plenty about you as well," Aiden said, shaking Arielle's hand, "So I have to ask... do you know about... the little family secret?"

"You mean the one where the full moon becomes a second halloween?" she asked, "Yes, I'm aware."

"Good," he sighed, "Just making sure."

"I can tell you're one of them as well, without me knowing the secret," she said, making Aiden's eyes grow wide, "Relax, you're not... "wolfing" out right now. It's kind of my super power to identify species with just one look."

"Very cool," Aiden said, looking Arielle up and down, taking in her image, "and what are you?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," Arielle said, shifting her weight to one hip.

"Yeah, I would, actually..."

"Arielle!" Kira called from the other side of the hallway, waving her hand in the air.

"Oh well," Aiden shrugged, "I guess now's not the time for that... but I'll see you later, okay?"

Arielle's eyebrows raised as Aiden walked away from her and down the opposite end of the hallway. She continued to walk in a straight line to Kira, who was standing at her locker, which was filled with pictures of her and Scott.

"What was that about?" Kira asked suspiciously, "What were you doing talking to Aiden?"

"He was talking to me," Arielle corrected, "and I don't know what _that_ was about."

"Look, Arielle," Kira said sweetly, "Scott told me everything about you and him and your family... and since I'm dating your brother, it would be rude of me not to say that we couldn't be friends, cause we totally can."

"Yeah, of course," Arielle nodded.

"But with Aiden on top of everything else," she continued, "If you ever need someone to talk to, I am here for you."

"Thanks," she smiled

Arielle never really had a girl friend before. The idea of sitting in a pink bedroom amongst a fuzzy carpet painting toe-nails wasn't exactly Arielle's idea of a fun night, but every now and then she wondered what it would be like just to sit in a corner and cry into a girl best friend's arms because a guy just wouldn't understand. Say there was boy drama with Aiden or whoever, Scott wouldn't be the one she would confide in because he was becoming just as protective as her dad. She was glad Kira extended the friendship invitation to her, otherwise, she wouldn't have felt like she truly belonged in Beacon Hills. Now, she felt better to call this new place home.


	6. Chapter 6

It was just after 5 o'clock at the McCall household. Agent McCall was stuck in the kitchen washing dishes from dinner as her permanent punishment for not telling Arielle or anyone else about her family. It was the start of a long list of things he would have to be paying for. Melissa was upstairs, taking off her scrubs from work and replacing them with pajamas as a way to signify that no one should be asking her to do anything else for the rest of the evening. Scott was in his room blasting music and Arielle was on the couch with her homework in her lap. That's when the doorbell rang.

"Somebody get that please!" Melissa called.

"I got it mom!" Arielle answered. She put her homework on the other side of the couch, then walked to the door only to see Stiles standing on the porch with his hands in his pockets and his shoulder shoved up to his ears.

Arielle opened the door, "Oh look! Stiles is here! That's new..."

She walked back into the house as Stiles followed her and closed the door behind him, "Sarcasm," he sighed, "Isn't that lovely?"

"The peachiest," Arielle answered, then called up the stairs, "SCOTT! Your boyfriend's here to play!"

There was no response, only the sound of running water from the kitchen and the loud thump of the bass coming from Scott's room.

"Actually," Stiles choked out, "If it's okay, I kinda hoped to see you here."

"Really?" Arielle asked, turning around, "What for?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, "Maybe we could... chill here, hang out for a bit... I just feel bad cause I'm like best friends with Scott and I feel like I know nothing about you except that you have really awesome powers."

She chuckled and walked towards the couch, leaning her body against it as she propped herself up with her hands, "Alright. What do you suggest we do?"

"We could uh... study, if you want," he suggested, indicating her homework on the couch.

She shook her head, "Yes because that's exactly what one should do if they wish to get to know someone."

"See, there's one thing," Stiles said, "I didn't know you were so sarcastic."

"I've recently mastered the art since my arrival in Beacon Hills," she said proudly.

He laughed, "Okay, how about this. We go for a drive or something. I can show you the places you don't know in town."

Arielle smiled, "I'd like that a lot."

It was more than easy to let her parents go out for a quick drive with Stiles. They trusted him enough and so did Scott, so they knew nothing was going to happen between them that was more than just small talk and the road. So, they got into Stiles' car and drove down the woods for several minutes without saying anything, just watching the road ahead of them and the trees that surrounded them.

"Back in English class today," Arielle began to speak, "We connected about something..."

"Did we?" Stiles asked.

"About my mom," she said, causing Stiles to lose the mojo he was gaining from her first comment, "You practically voiced the thought that had been racing in my head for weeks... how did you know that?"

"I'm not some kind of mind reader, if that's what you're thinking," he commented, "but yeah... I kinda know what it's like to not have a mother for a long time."

"Really?"

There was silence as Stiles collected his thoughts.

"I was just a kid," he said, "My mom... had this brain disease..."

There was only silence again. She reached over and placed her hand on top of his.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

He let out a quick breath and squeezed his eyes shut for a nano second before looking back at the road again.

"It's okay," he replied, "I'm okay..."

She smiled at him and looked down at her hands, still touching his softly. She rubbed her thumb against his hand anyway, because she understood what it was like to feel abandoned and left alone with no one but a father in law enforcement, not sure if they were going to make it out alive or not. During those years in Arizona when Arielle sat alone in her bed, desperately wanting a mother to read her a bedtime story, she wished that the unbearable pain to go away.

"I don't wish the pain of not having a mother on my own worst enemy," she commented.

He nodded and continued to drive without replying to her. Arielle looked out of the window to avoid any awkward silence that would follow, but that's when she saw a large lake, engulfed by the trees surrounding it.

"Stiles..." she said softly, "Can we...?"

He looked in the direction she was looking in and saw the ripples in the water brushing up against the rocks of the shore. He then saw the wonder and desperation in her eyes. Then he grabbed the wheel tightly and pulled over to the side. It was a little random, but he loved seeing that kind of passion in her eyes for something.

Arielle got out of the car and walked, almost floated, over to the water and placed one foot into the cool and thin liquid, which fueled her like a run down car finally being filled with gasoline. It set off a fire in her heart. The water was like her redemption, her passion, and her inspiration, feeling each and every new wave of water as if it were a silky smooth blanket. That's when she finally dived straight into the deep water, watching the rocks under her and the small fish that swam amongst her as the air bubbles rose to the surface. She then felt skin begin to change, as though it were adjusting from land to water to allow her access to the water. Her eyes were not in any pain to be in the water and she didn't hold her breath, but simply breathed as if the water had been flowing through her lungs for years.

To be fully wrapped in the water's embrace was something that she had dearly missed since she was pulled from that very same place by her brother. From where she was, she could see every single thing that was in the lake, from the shore closest to her all the way to the far end of the shore, where bigger fish and seaweed flowed together like clouds and wind. Her father had told her to never give in to what the water had to offer, but to be away from it felt like a sin. Her true belonging was beneath the surface, under the waves and the wind that pushed it. It was then that she heard someone calling her from all the way up to land.

"Arielle?" Stiles called. She could hear it crystal clear as if he were standing right next to her.

She swam all the way up to the surface and bobbed there in the water, watching as the small figure of Stiles stood at the shore and her eyes flashed bright blue.

Arielle swam up to the shore and grabbed onto one of the rocks, smiling intently at him.

"So this is your place?" Stiles asked, taking a seat on the rock nearest her.

"Yeah," she said, looking back at the water, "This is it."

"So..." he began awkwardly, "What exactly are you?"

"I'm a water nymph," she said proudly, "You may have heard of these from Greek mythology; the enchanting creatures who come from the water to lure a men in and drown them."

Stiles readjusted his seating position so his legs weren't facing the water. Arielle giggled.

"Don't worry," she calmed him, "Oceanids haven't drowned men since ancient times."

"Oceanids," Stiles repeated, "Those are the nymphs who were associated with Poseidon."

"Ah," Arielle smiled, "So you did pay attention in history."

"Greek Mythology is interesting to me," he shrugged.

"But this centuries Oceanids are much more evolved," she added, "We were always able to identify species with just one look. That was something never documented in history. After Poseidon's kingdom was attacked and several nymphs were killed, Poseidon gave the Oceanids the greatest gift of sight, that way we would know our attackers and how to defeat them with just one glance."

"That's intense," Stiles said.

"That's not even the most intense part," she said excitedly, "If you thought supernatural water powers and identification were cool, then you should see what happens when I get too angry."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's kinda cool at first... but then it sort of becomes one of my personal demons," she cautioned, "When a nymph gets too angry, an evil spirit takes over their bodies. It's kind of like what people think werewolves are; beasts who can't control their homocidal habits even if they wanted to."

"So, what? If you get too angry, you get taken over by this murderous rampaging spirit?"

"Basically," she nodded, "I have to control my emotions all the time. One temper tantrum and I'm capable of the scariest things... Even people with really cool water powers have a dark side."

"Then I promise I won't get on your bad side," Stiles said.

"Good," she whispered, followed by silence as they simply looked at each other, then she cleared her throat to get rid of the tension, "So... tell me about yourself."

"What do you want to know?"

"Hmm... favorite color, obviously."

"That's easy," he said, "I like red and blue a lot."

"Two favorite colors," she raised her eyebrows, "You better slow down there, boy."

He chuckled, "What else do you want to know? Ask me anything."

She pursed her lips and thought for a moment before speaking, "Okay... favorite memory? when did you meet my brother? how long have you been at Beacon Hills? I'm kind of curious about the Nogitsune thing that happened to you, so I'd like to know about that. Who was your first kiss? and Who was your first crush?"

"Wow," Stiles said, doing a double take, "Okay, let's see. Memory; when I was about 8 years old, Scott finally let me be Batman instead of Robin when we were in the school yard. I met Scott when I was in Kindergarten. I've lived in Beacon Hills my entire life. I was possessed by a weird trickster spirit and killed several people without my knowing which was probably the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me. Ever. My first kiss was my friend Heather. My first crush... well, I guess you don't have to be a nymph to figure that out."

"Lydia..." she answered, "The girl from your story... the strawberry blonde."

"Yeah, her," he said, scratching the back of his neck.

"She's beautiful."

"Beautiful," he scoffed, "That doesn't even begin to describe her... I've been in love with her since I first met her in freshman year of high school... and I'm still hooked on her..."

Arielle nodded and looked at the rocks on the shore, how they were all so content just sitting there perfectly resting next to each other without a single pebble out of place.

"When you want something..." she said, "You either fight for it... or let it go. There's no in between."

He nodded, "I know..."

There wasn't really anything left to discuss between the two of them as their evening of "getting-to-know-you" came to a close. Stiles dropped Arielle off in front of her house and they exchanged a slightly awkward "i'll see you at school" before Arielle went into the front door and locked it behind her. Part of her wished that the night would have lasted longer. She enjoyed talking to Stiles, figuring him out and what his deal is. Another part of her wanted to punch herself and lock herself in her room for the rest of eternity, because slowly but surely, Arielle could feel something tugging at her heart, and she was afraid it was Stiles.


	7. Chapter 7

Arielle woke up to the sound of sizzling and music. She rested in her beige painted room with new blue sheets and brand new photos she had taken up on the walls. That was all she could that was made of her new bedroom, but after some time and a little more money, that would change and Arielle would finally move in officially.

"Scott!" Melissa called from downstairs, "Arielle! Breakfast!"

She pushed the covers in front of her off her to reveal her sweatpants and blue polyester top with black flowers on it and her hair in a tight pony tail above her head. She opened her bedroom door only to see Scott there too, just coming out of his room with his hair in a big mess and his wrinkled t-shirt and sweatpants.

"Morning, big brother," she said, passing Scott towards the stairs.

"Morning, baby sister," Scott said, following her down the stairs.

"Mom," Arielle called, heading towards the kitchen, "What smells so good?"

Melissa was in the kitchen, setting up two plates on the kitchen table while she was in her scrubs.

"Your father actually made pancakes for you today," she said proudly.

Agent McCall came over and placed two pancakes from a pan onto each other their plates.

"Plain for Scott and blueberry for Arielle," he said.

Once the pan was put down, Arielle ran into his arms and hugged him very tightly. He was a bit caught off guard by this, but he was happy just to have his daughter look in his direction, let alone hug him again.

"I love you dad," she whispered.

"I love you too, sweetheart," he said, stroking her long brown hair, "Now get eating, you don't want to be late for school today."

She smiled and sat down at the table opposite Scott.

"Now remember," Melissa said, "Scott, you have lacrosse practice today, which means Arielle-."

"Is getting a ride from Kira," Arielle finished.

"Excellent," she said, kissing Arielle's head, then Scott's, "I love you both. Have a wonderful day."

"Bye mom," Arielle waved with a fork in her hand.

"See ya," Scott said, immediately digging into his plate afterwards.

They heard the front door open, then close in the same second. It wasn't long before both of them finished their breakfast with a glass of milk on the side. Arielle got dressed in a purple tank-top with a sea-green and dark green tights with pretty patterns on them. Dressing better was just another step in the right direction towards feeling like she truly belonged.

"Dad," Arielle called, walking into the room with her combat boots on, "How do I look?"

Agent McCall shrugged as he finally finished running the dish washer, "Great."

He approached her slowly, then kissed her head. Scott walked in with his backpack on his right shoulder in his blue t-shirt and jeans.

"Let's go," Scott said.

"Alright," Arielle nodded, "Bye dad."

"Bye Arielle," he called after her, then he looked to Scott, "Bye Scott! Have a good day!"

"Yeah," Scott called back, closing the door behind him.

"Come on, Scott," Arielle rolled her eyes at him, "Can you at least try to get along with our dad?"

"The same dad who kept my own sister away from me for 16 years?" Scott raised his eyebrows, "Yeah, I think it'll take a little more than a month to make up for that amount of time."

"But you have to at least promise me you'll give him a chance," Arielle said, opening the back door and throwing her backpack on the seat.

"Of course you'd take his side," Scott said, opening the driver side door and getting inside, "You seem to always root for the bad guys who are trying to redeem themselves."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Arielle asked, getting into the passenger side.

"I mean, someone has a certain soft spot for a former terrorist werewolf," he teased.

"Who? Aiden?" she asked, throwing her head against the seat as the car started to move, "Really Scott?"

"All I'm saying is that he's got an eye on you. I've also got an eye on him."

"What's so wrong about a boy taking a little interest in me. I don't see anything wrong with it."

"That's the thing, there's only 1 things wrong with it."

"And what is that?" she asked, raising her eyebrows with sass.

"It's Aiden," Scott sighed, "He's not the best company to keep."

"How so?"

Scott took a deep breath as he looked at the road, "He's had a bad past with us."

"Let me guess, he's tried to kill you various times?"

He was silent as he glared at his sister.

"Oh come on!" she scoffed, "EVERYONE'S tried to kill you guys at least once. Does that mean EVERYONE doesn't deserve a chance to at least have some company?"

"I'm just saying that this one in particular hasn't exactly gotten along with us," he added, "and don't you dare pull out the 'foxes and wolves don't get along, so why are you dating Kira' line, because that one won't work. Especially since Kira is making a big effort to be your friend."

Arielle crossed her arms and sank back into the car seat, "Give me one good example as to why I shouldn't hang out with Aiden?"

"Okay," he nodded, "He and Stiles aren't on friendly terms."

Arielle sat up, "What are you talking about?"

"Aiden used to date Lydia," Scott said, "He wasn't the best of boyfriends to her, so she dumped him, but he still doesn't make Stiles very comfortable. Not to mention he's also tried to kill me several times."

"Yeah, I got that."

"So if not for me, then stay away from Aiden for Stiles."

Arielle sighed and sank back into her seat again. Making Stiles angry wasn't the first thing that she wanted to do, but it also wasn't the last. They shared this wonderful evening together of talking and getting to know each other only to be told that he likes Lydia. It was like a piece of wood beginning to be lit only to have a small flame and then be thrown in water the next second. Maybe it was best to honor her brother's wishes and find somebody else, but nobody else (who was decent) would give her the time of day.

So when Aiden threw a note at Arielle's head during their history class together, she was smiled back at him and opened up the white piece of paper that said "Hello beautiful" followed by another one that said "why are you so far away?". She didn't write any notes back, but just kept receiving them as they came every 10 minutes. They were flirtatious and friendly. Arielle didn't see why Scott was so on the fence about him when he seemed so open and welcoming.

After class finished and the bell rang, Arielle gathered up her books and gracefully left the classroom as Aiden noticed her long waves bouncing up and down against her back as she walked away from him. He took the back door to the classroom and ended up face to face with his object of desire.

"Did I also mention that your hair looks wonderful this morning?" he asked, leaning smoothly against the wall.

Arielle rolled her eyes and kept on walking.

"What?" Aiden said, following her, "Are you too shy to talk to me or something?"

"My brother says I should stay away," she answered, not looking at him.

"Stay away?" he asked, "Why?"

"Because he said so."

"I hardly qualify that as a reason."

"I think that I should at least take that into consideration, don't you agree?"

"Well yeah..." he said, as he slowed down his pace. He noticed Arielle walking ahead of him, so he picked up his pace again into a small jog to get next to her again, "but what's life without a little risk, you know what I mean?"

She stopped walking and tilted her head at him, "Yeah, I guess," then continued walking.

"So does that mean you'll go out with me?" he asked, standing still as she walked ahead of him.

Arielle teasingly turned around, letting her hair fall in front of her face, "It means we can be friends."

Aiden smiled, "It's a start! I'll take it!"

That wasn't the end of Aiden's relentless pursuits at getting Arielle to agree to go out with him. During lunch, Arielle found an empty table outside to sit at by herself until she would later be accompanied by her brother and whomever would want to sit with him. She sat down on the bench and looked at her tray. When she looked up, she immediately saw Aiden sitting in front of her, causing her to jump a little in her skin.

"You scared me," she laughed.

"People say I'm a scary guy," he chuckled, "So now that we're friends, it's not bad if I sit with you, right?"

"Not at all," she said.

"Good," he said, leaning closer to her, "Cause I'd do anything to be your good side..."

She could feel her cheeks turning bright red, so she ducked her head back down to look at her food. That's when she felt a warmth next to her immediately.

"Aiden," Scott said, "What a surprise to see you here... talking to my sister..."

"She said I could sit here with her," Aiden responded.

"Well I didn't," he said sternly.

There was silence and Arielle didn't look up from her food. She then finally had the courage to lift her head up, only to see that Aiden was gone.

"What's the matter with you?" Arielle snapped.

"Me?" he scoffed, "What's the matter with you? I told you to stay away from that guy."

"We're just friends," she snapped, "You don't need to get all defensive over a friend."

The rest of their lunch was eaten in silence.

When the end of the school day came around, Arielle and Kira had their last class together, so they decided to go to Kira's locker and get the rest of her stuff, then they'd both leave together to drop Arielle off at her house. As Arielle was leaning against the lockers beside hers in conversation, she looked over and saw Aiden leaving his last class as well.

"Arielle?" Kira asked, snapping her fingers in front of her face, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah..." Arielle said, softly shaking her head.

"You seem a little... spooked," she said, noticing Aiden staring at her from the other end of the hallway, "Oh god, what did that idiot do?"

"What?" Arielle asked.

"Scott," she explained, "He's been acting weird today and now you and Aiden are making goo-goo eyes at each other from opposite ends of the hall."

Arielle turned her head, "Would it be terrible if I talked to him for a minute?"

"Not at all," she said, "He may have a scratchy past, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve a second chance."

Arielle smiled at her, then jogged down the hallway towards Aiden, whose smile was growing bigger and bigger the closer she got to him.

"Hey..." she sighed.

"Hi..." he smiled.

"I am SO sorry about lunch today. Scott's just a little overprotective of me."

"It's okay, I get it. If I had a sister that I just figured out I had, I'd be a little on edge too."

"So we're good?"

"Not exactly," he grinned, "You see, my heart is still a little busted up from you friend-zoning me earlier today."

She giggled, "I apologize for that as well."

"Oh well," he shrugged, "You can make it up to me over dinner."

"What?" she asked, blinking several times.

"See you on Friday," he said smoothly, "I'll pick you up at 8."

He pushed some of her hair out of her face, then patted her shoulder as he walked past her. Aiden was sweet and warm and welcoming. Why would Scott think that people like him never change? she thought. He obviously had a heart beneath all of that muscle and good looks, otherwise, he wouldn't be so sweet to her. Yet, she felt a little breathless, like her heart would explode from beating so fast. Arielle had never been asked out by a boy before in her entire life, and it felt wonderful.


	8. Chapter 8

Once Arielle told Kira about her date with Aiden on Friday night, she dragged her to the nearest mall and raided every single clothing store until Arielle's wardrobe was completely re-stocked with clothes that weren't beat up jeans and old t-shirts. There were all kinds of skirts, tights, leggings, dark jeans, blouses, and basically anything you would find in a teenaged girl's wardrobe.

Kira had picked out a very special outfit for Arielle's date. It was a dark blue peplum blouse with a black bow pinned to the back. That special top was accompanied by white jeans that were Arielle's choice. She had spent the hours since she got home taking countless showers and trying to do her hair the way she was told. When she finally had her hair curled and her makeup on, she took a photo on her phone and sent it quickly to Kira. Her phone beeped only a few seconds later:

**K: Put on the leather pants. It'll be sexier.**

That seemed to make Arielle's heart stop all together. It started to make her more nervous now for this date more than ever. Was that what all guys expected? For their dates to be sexy? She fell onto her bed and groaned.

**A: I can't do this**

**K: Yes you can! You just have to believe in yourself**

**A: ...**

**K: Ok... when I had my first date with Scott, I didn't know how it was going to go. I was pretty sure I was way over my head. Once he got there, and I believed that I could make it through, that's eventually what ended up happening. Believe, Arielle.**

She threw her phone onto her pillow and got up, pimping up her hair in the mirror once more, then taking another big deep breath. The time was 7:56. Only 4 minutes left.

Arielle threw on the leather pants with great difficulty, then headed down the stairs in her new high-healed ankle boots. There, she saw Scott sitting on the couch, texting on his phone.

"Hey," she said casually.

He turned around, then readjusted himself as he saw the vision in the hall, "What on earth are you wearing?" he laughed.

"Kira took me shopping," she shrugged.

"Yeah. I see that," he chuckled and sat back on the couch comfortably, "Are you expecting me to take you somewhere tonight?"

The time read 7:58.

"No," she said, "but I was just wondering... did you have any... expectations... when you first took Kira out?"

He shook his head, "No not really. I just wanted her to be herself."

"Oh," she nodded, staring outside of the door, "Do you think all guys think that way about dates?"

Scott pressed his eyebrows together and turned around again.

"Why?" he asked suspiciously.

8:00.

Right on cue, a motorcycle came driving up to the sidewalk with a great roaring sound.

"No reason," she said, grabbing her new small black purse and ran out of the door.

Scott got up and chased after her into the yard.

"Arielle!" he yelled.

Arielle turned around, her hair flying past her face.

"Be careful," he nodded.

"Always am," she responded, then got into Aiden's motorcycle.

The date was more casual than Arielle's outfit. Aiden insisted on getting fast food and eating outside so that way there wasn't any pressure on her, since he kind of figured this was her first date EVER. They sat and talked about their classes, which teachers they liked and disliked, which subjects they were better at that others. They both did fairly well in English class. Aiden just enjoyed watching her eat and laugh and smile as the conversations only went upward. They took a drive after they ate. Arielle had been driven down the same road, but both times they were just in a car with either Stiles or Scott. This time, on Aiden's bike, it was so much more thrilling. She could feel the wind in her face as it pushed back her hair. She clung onto him for dear life and it felt so comforting to put her trust in him. It was sensational. The evening ended at about 9:30, a reasonable hour for Melissa and Agent McCall's sake. He parked on the sidewalk just in front of the house.

"I had a lot of fun tonight," she said, getting off of the bike.

"I'm glad," he nodded, getting off the bike, then leaning up against it, "Maybe we could do this again sometime?"

Arielle didn't think about Aiden wanting another date. Another date was a different story entirely to her. She just survived her first date and now she had to think about a second date and going through the same stress all over again the next week. He could see the distress in her eyes and sighed.

"I said maybe," he corrected himself.

She nodded, "Can we just... think about tonight?"

He agreed with her, but then she started to move closer to him, placing her hands on his chest and sliding them up to his shoulders. She didn't know what else to do other than kiss him, so she did. It surprised him that she would let him kiss her on their first date. Aiden had assumed that Arielle was under so much pressure, so he wouldn't even lay a finger on her unless she wanted him to, and apparently she did.

Arielle let go of the kiss, blushing from embarrassment at what she had just done.

"That was nice," he assured her.

"Good..." she whispered, pushing her hair back behind her ear, "I'll uh... see you on Monday."

"Goodnight," he said as he watched her walk up the pathway to her house and close the door.

"I don't really see a problem here," Kira said to Arielle as lunch came rolling around on a warm Monday afternoon. Arielle had been stressing out to Kira all day about her date with Aiden over the weekend. It made her nervous, but excited and hesitant all at the same time.

"The problem is..." Arielle said, her voice growing to a whisper, "Stiles..."

"Stiles?" she said loudly.

Arielle franticly hushed her, "Yes... Stiles."

"Why would he be a problem?"

"I don't know... but he just is... he's in my life and I can't-."

"Ahhh," she nodded with a grin, "I know exactly what this is about."

"You do?" Arielle's eyes widened.

"You like Aiden AND Stiles," Kira said excitedly.

"No!" she protested, "I don't like them BOTH. I like Aiden but..."

"Please don't say you love Stiles."

"God no... I just... he's there, isn't he?"

"So you can't go out with Aiden because... Stiles... exists?"

"Exactly."

"Okay," Kira said, turning herself to face Arielle, "I know that Stiles may seem like the perfect guy for you, but odds are, he's not. The perfect guy for you actually has feelings for you, and I'm sorry, but I don't think he sees anything happening between you two."

"Because of Lydia," Arielle said, looking down at the grass beneath her.

"Lydia is a big factor in that, yes," Kira agreed, "but even so, you need to pick the guy who is there for you right now. Don't pick the guy you think you have to wait for. Be sure."

Arielle nodded again, "I just need to do one thing first..."

The school bell rang and Arielle was walking down the hall again with her backpack on her right shoulder as she headed towards her history class. Luckily, she saw Stiles at his locker on the way there, so she stopped on her path and headed towards him.

"Stiles," she called.

He glanced up at her and smiled, "Hey! Arielle! What's up?"

"Nothing much," she said sweetly, "I'm actually on my way to history right now."

"Oh hey!" he said, "I heard you went out with Aiden on Friday."

"Who told you that-?"

"Scott," they both said and laughed.

"I should've known," she giggled.

"Did you have fun?" Stiles asked eagerly.

"Yeah... it was decent," she said, "but hey, I have a quick question for you."

"What's up?"

"Do you... you told me at the lake the other night about... Lydia... is that still... a thing?"

"What?" he asked, "Me and Lydia... you mean, me liking her and... yeah. I still like her, why?"

Arielle's heart sank and rose almost at the same exact time, "Well... double dates and all. You better do something about your little crush so we can hang out some more."

"That'd be awesome," he agreed.

The second bell rang.

"I'll see you in English," she said quietly, then pushed past him as she went to English class.

Some part of Stiles couldn't help but look back and notice her walking down the hallway with her curls bouncing against her back and the leather pants she was wearing with a teal blouse. His best friend's sister looked different in a really good way, and he wanted to punch himself in the face for noticing.


	9. Chapter 9

Arielle said yes, and she and Aiden were together for what seemed like forever, even if it was just a few weeks. She counted the days to the exact moment when she approached him at the end of the school day and brought him in for a kiss. The clock said 3:29. Three weeks exactly had passed on a sunny Monday afternoon. Every Friday and Saturday since that blissful day, Arielle and Aiden went on a date to do whatever they wanted. Fridays were Aiden's turn, Saturdays were Arielle's turn.

On a Friday evening, just as usual, Arielle came down the stairs in a fabulous outfit accompanied by leather pants at exactly 7:58 in the evening. The first thing she noticed when she picked up her little black purse was Scott, sulking on the couch staring down at his cell phone.

"Mom! Dad!" she called, "I'm leaving!"

"Don't wait up!" Scott called, "She'll be home early!"

Arielle looked at the glass of water on the coffee table in front of him. He seemed distracted enough where this might actually work. She motioned her hand towards the glass and began to command it with her body to rise up, and so it did. Thankfully, Scott did not notice. She only lifted up a little ball of water so his phone wouldn't get totally ruined. She placed it over his head and squeezed her hand, causing the water to spill on him, only getting him slightly damp.

"Hey!" he protested, "I thought you weren't supposed to use your water powers at night."

"And I thought big brothers were supposed to be supportive," she sassed.

"Just go on your stupid date," he growled.

"Fine," she scoffed, "I will."

The clock still said 7:59 and there was no sign of Aiden outside just yet. So, Arielle ran over to the couch and flung herself onto his brother's lap with a thud.

"What are you doing?" Scott asked, annoyed.

"I'm just enjoying your company," she smiled, "Is that so bad?"

"You don't seem to enjoy my company these days. Rather, you are QUITE taken by Aiden's company."

"Quite?" she giggled, "Since when did you become so proper."

They laughed at each other and Arielle sat up on her legs, facing towards him, "We need to spend more time together... Ooh! I have an idea."

"Oh joy," he whined.

"No I'm serious!" she said, bouncing on the couch, "What if we went on a double date? Aiden and I with Kira and you! Wouldn't that be so much fun?"

"A double date..." he rolled his eyes, "Yeah, no thanks."

"Oh come on!" she begged, "Kira told me you guys haven't been out in forever and it would mean the world to me if you could just spend a little time around Aiden. Please?"

"No way," he refused, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Please..." she flashed her big brown eyes and folded her hands while sticking out her lower lip.

The very next evening, Scott was dreading the upcoming double date as he was driving a very excited Arielle who could hardly keep still. At least Kira would be there and the evening would be SO terrible. This was for his sister's sake. Even if it was Aiden bringing that smile to her face, he was happy to see her happy.

The McCall siblings arrived at the movie theatre only to see Kira and Aiden waiting in front of the building, waving to them as they walked out of the car. Arielle ran to Kira first.

"Hi!" she cheered, hugging her new best friend tightly, "I'm so glad you guys could do this."

"Me too," she rejoiced, "I've been dying to get this one off the couch for weeks."

"What about me?" Aiden said, opening his arms.

"Hey," she said sweetly, walking into his arms and kissing him ever so slightly on the lips.

"You look amazing," he said, scanning her up and down.

"Thanks," she said, biting her lip, "You're looking pretty hot yourself."

"Hey cutie," Scott said as he approached his girlfriend, kissing her once on the cheek then on her lips very quickly.

"Look at you," Kira said proudly with her hand on his chest, "All presentable and everything, and not a Stiles in sight."

He laughed and shook his head.

"Shall we go in?" Aiden said, leading Arielle in with his hand on her back.

They were watching an action flick. It seemed like the only thing they could agree on seeing without the guys falling asleep. One of the reasons why Scott loved Kira so much was because she could sit through an action movie without complaining. Most girlfriends always complain. Aiden was grateful that Arielle was open to new things all the time, so an action movie didn't make her cringe or make her beg to see that new romantic comedy about forbidden love.

During the movie, Aiden didn't even want to touch Arielle the whole time in fear that Scott would disapprove of them being together. He knew that Arielle loved her brother, so his approval was the first thing he was looking for. Meanwhile, Kira rested against Scott's shoulder with his arm firmly around her. It made Arielle slightly jealous that he seemed so possessive with his girlfriend while Aiden wouldn't even hold her hand.

"Is it okay if I get another drink?" Arielle whispered to Aiden.

"Sure thing," he said, "Will you get me some sweedish fish?"

"For you?" she asked, leaning in closer to him, "Anything."

She kissed his lips lightly before getting out of her aisle seat and leaving the theatre as casually as she could. Arielle headed to the concessions counter.

"Can I get a bottle of water and some sweedish fish?" she asked, holding out her money to the cashier.

Now she waited for her snacks. She heard absolutely nothing around her except for the soft popping of the popcorn in the glass box. Then she heard a voice behind her. It was a commanding voice, but a sweet voice at the same time.

"Two please," the voice said.

Arielle was curious so she turned around.

"Dad, I got it," Stiles said, pulling out his wallet to pay for both him and his dad to see the same movie she was seeing.

She freezed almost immediately, feeling every single bone in her body tense up, like her breath was completely gone and her heart stopped beating. It was like there was a depressing song playing in the background of the depressing moment. She didn't know why he made her feel this way, but he did, and she swore to get over him as quickly as possible, even if there was absolutely nothing between them.

The cashier pushed the water bottle and the sweedish fish onto the counter and Arielle took them as quickly as possible and tried to hide herself as she walked towards the theatre.

"Arielle?" Stiles voice called.

"Shit," she muttered to herself, then turned around, "Hey! What are you guys doing here?"

"Father son night out," the Sheriff said, patting Stiles's back.

"It's good to see you Sheriff," Arielle said, hugging him for a brief moment.

"It's good to see you too, kid," he chuckled, "How's mom and dad?"

"Mom's good, and dad... well," she shrugged, "he's getting there."

"Indeed he is," Sheriff nodded.

"I see you're headed to the same movie as we are," Stiles said, motioning towards the theatre.

"Yeah..." she nodded, "I'm here with Scott and Kira... a-and Aiden."

Stiles's eyes grew wide and it looked as though he had just made a big swallow.

"Y-You're with Aiden... that's right..." he choked out, "That's really cool."

"Yeah it is," she nodded awkwardly, "I really should be getting him his candy, though. We don't want him to miss me too much."

"You crazy love birds have fun," Sheriff cheered.

"Thanks Sheriff," she smiled and headed into the movie theatre, not knowing if Stiles and the Sheriff were close behind or not. She didn't care, or at least she didn't want to.

Arielle returned back to her seat, the depressing music still playing in her head as she watched about 3 different guys get shot down within the same second. She turned her head only slightly and saw Stiles and the Sheriff taking a seat on the aisle, right in direct view of her. She turned forward, then looked at Aiden, who seemed thoroughly pleased with the film in front of him.

"You're candy," she said, holding the bag out to him.

He smiled at her and took the bag, "You are so good to me."

She kissed his cheek and took his arm, resting her head on his shoulder the way Kira was with Scott. Every few minutes, she would adjust her position so she was getting closer and closer to Aiden, waiting for some kind of reaction out of him, but nothing happened.

"Hey..." she whispered, tugging at his arm, "Are you okay?"

He looked at her and smiled, "Yeah... of course I am. Why?"

She paused and looked from the screen to behind her at Stiles, who was clearly either looking at her or in her direction.

"Kiss me," she said plainly.

"What?"

"Kiss me... please."

"Why?" he asked cautiously, looking over at Scott.

She placed her fingers on his chin and moved his head to face her, "He's not there..." she whispered, "It's just us... I promise..."

He smiled back at her and placed his hand on her neck, pulling her in for a sweet and innocent kiss. That was all that could happen in the movie theatre, but that was all she needed for now. Arielle just needed proof that Aiden was really in this for her and nothing else. Then she was wondering if Stiles was watching, but quickly erased that thought from her mind as she remembered that feeling of Aiden's lips on hers. There were no words, it was just a beautiful kiss. The simplicity pleased her.

After the movie, both Arielle and Aiden were fully satisfied with how the night went.

"I actually enjoyed myself," Kira said, holding Scott's hand as they walked out, "Thank you for not letting me see a cheesy romantic comedy."

"Any time," he shrugged.

Arielle was holding Aiden's hand, but she wasn't as clingy as Kira and Scott were. There were some boundaries that were crossed once people were in a relationship as long as they were. They just innocently held hands, the way young couples did when they were fresh in their relationship.

"Oh hey..." Aiden said, pointing with Arielle's hand over towards two people whom she was already familiar with, "Is that Stiles?"

"And Sheriff too," Scott smiled and then waved his free hand in the air, "Hey Sheriff! Stiles!"

They turned around and cheered at the sight of each other.

"Hey Scott," Stiles greeted casually.

"What are you doing here, man?" Scott asked.

"Dad and I were out for some bonding time," he said, patting his dad's back, "But I ran into Arielle earlier when she was getting snacks, she said you guys were out on a double date."

"Oh did she?" Aiden asked, looking over at her, "She didn't tell me you guys were here."

Arielle blushed a little, "Well... you were so invested in your movie, I wasn't going to interrupt you..."

"Yeah," he scoffed, then nudged her playfully, "Sure you weren't."

Stiles scratched his nose, then looked at the ground.

"Did you guys enjoy the movie?" the Sheriff asked.

"Yeah, we did," Arielle said, grabbing onto Aiden's arm again and leaning on his shoulder, looking directly at Stiles who still didn't look up at them, "What about you, Stiles? Did you like it?"

He looked up at them only to feel a strange stirring in his stomach, "Yeah..." he said casually, "It was great. Lot's of fighting. Lot's of blood."

"Nothing too unfamiliar to us," Kira laughed, causing a laughter around the group followed by a big sigh.

"Well we should be heading home," the Sheriff said, "but hey, great seeing you guys."

"You too," Arielle waved, still holding onto Aiden for dear life.

"Do you want me to drive you home?" he asked.

"That would be perfect," she smiled at him lovingly, "Scott? Can I please?"

"Why not," he shrugged.

"More alone time for me," Kira bragged.

"That's what I was hoping for," she winked, then pulled Aiden over back to his motorcycle.

The evening wasn't a complete fail in the end. Arielle only wanted to feel empowered and strong in that moment of weakness and intensity. Somehow, she felt accomplished and unaccomplished at the same exact time. Every time Aiden kissed her lips when they parted ways, she began to feel more complete and more whole, and even more accomplished than she did at the movies. Aiden made her happy, and that was all that mattered.


	10. Chapter 10

Ever since that night at the movies, Stiles had been on edge about everything. He suddenly felt much more alert to everything around him, like something might burst into flames at any second if he wasn't careful. It started affecting him in school, making him more insecure and self-conscious. This was Stiles Stilinski, the guy who never gave a crap about looking stupid or silly, now walking around the hallway fixing his t-shirt and jacket to make sure they looked nice every time a girl walked down the hallway. It was freaking him out, especially every time he saw Arielle and Aiden kiss in the hallways. It wasn't like they were sticking each other's tongues down each other's throats all the time, but even the smallest contact of lips set him on edge for some kind of reason which he could not explain.

"Hey man," Scott said, touching Stiles on the shoulder, causing him to jump up, "Take it easy. What's up with you? Did you get any sleep?"

"Yeah I did," he nodded, "Do you see any red beneath my eyes? I got plenty of sleep."

"Okay..." Scott said awkwardly, "Then why are you so jumpy today?"

"I'm just... I'm being cautious," he explained, "You know how... when we first found Arielle, I had this feeling inside of me, like I was feeling what she was feeling?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Well I think this might be it again..."

"It can't be," he denied, "The last time that happened, we both felt it."

"But she's your sister now," Stiles argued, "You guys are together 24/7, you don't need to be able to feel what she's feeling because you live under the same roof... but I just feel like something bad is about to happen, you know? And I think your sister is involved."

"You think something's wrong with Arielle," Scott repeated, "What can I do about it?"

"I don't know, talk to her... or something."

"Alright," Scott said, patting Stiles on the shoulder, "If you think something's wrong, I'll just ask her... just to be sure it's not her you're feeling. Okay?"

"Thanks man," Stiles nodded.

Scott had to admit, something weird was going on with Stiles, but Arielle seemed perfectly fine. She was happier since the movies. But girls sometimes cover up their feelings to seem stronger than they actually are. He had seen enough chick-flicks with Kira to know that little bit of knowledge. It wasn't going to cause any harm just by asking. So, after school, Scott knocked on Arielle's door. It was Friday and she had a curling iron in one hand with a hairspray can in the other hand.

"Arielle?" he called.

"Come in," she said, spraying a piece of her hair on the iron, causing Scott to dramatically cough.

"Jesus!" he cried, "What the fuck is that stuff?"

"It's just hairspray," she said angrily, "No need to be such a guy about it."

"I'm sorry," he said, squinting as he walked into her room and sat on the bed, "I just wanted to ask you something real quick."

"Anything," she said, still looking in the mirror as she released the curl and it fell gracefully at her side.

"It's about Aiden," he said, "and before you get all defensive, I just wanted to know how things are going with him... you know... are you okay with dating him?"

"Yeah," she scoffed, as if it was a dumb question to ask, "Why wouldn't I be? If I wasn't, I wouldn't be going out with him tonight."

"Cool," he replied shaking his leg.

Arielle noticed the nervous expression on his face as he basically shook the entire bed. She put the curling iron down and unplugged it.

"What do you think...?" she asked quietly.

"Honestly?" he asked, "I don't know how I feel about you dating him..."

Arielle was disappointed to hear that, almost shattered that her brother didn't exactly approve of whom she was dating at the moment.

"Really?" she asked.

"I mean, not specifically him," he said, "I just don't want you dating anybody right now."

"Why?" she asked again, her voice getting shakier as she backed away from him, "Is something bad happening?"

"Well... no," he said, standing up, "I don't know, maybe."

"You know something," she said immediately. She had never let her emotions gets this high this fast before, and it felt dangerous. Thanks to Aiden, the danger was attracting her closer to it, "You know something about Aiden or about me, don't you? What are you hiding?"

"Nothing," he said, holding his hands up in fear, "Stiles was just getting this weird feeling-."

"Stiles..." she breathed, "Good god! Why can't I be free of him!?"

"Excuse me?" Scott asked, "What are you talking about?"

"It's-."

Arielle angrily wanted to throw something. Of course Stiles was getting involved with her love life, making her feel like Aiden was some kind of danger to her. Aiden wasn't dangerous and she knew that with all her heart. That's when she saw the clock that said 8:00.

"I don't have time for this right now," she said, picking up her phone and heading downstairs as fast as she could.

"Arielle!" Scott called after her, "What about Stiles?"

"What about Stiles?" she spat back, "Stiles doesn't mean anything to me! Don't you get it!?"

She walked out of the house and saw Aiden on his bike, like he was a lighthouse amidst a stormy sea. He was just out of her reach when she heard a voice come up behind her.

"Hey Arielle, listen to me," Stiles said, grabbing onto her hand.

"Let go of me!" she demanded, stepping back to him, "Or so help me god..."

"Arielle, you need to calm down," he said assuringly.

"Calm down!?" she shouted, "Don't you fucking tell me to calm down!"

That's when things took a quick turn for the worst. Arielle had promised her dad and Stiles not to give in to the dark side within her, but it had been so long since she had visited that side of her, and the darkness welcomed her as an old friend. It was attracted to her just as much as she was attracted to it. It seemed like the perfect thing that she needed to ease herself. Stiles saw her brown eyes turn into a light blue and knew that nothing good could follow from that.

Arielle lifted her arms up and water came rising from the ground in small droplets one at a time until there seemed to be enough to fill an entire body of water. When she released her arms, the water came crashing down and it surrounded Stiles, picking him up high above her as she watched with pleasantry and satisfaction from her latest victim.

"Arielle," Aiden said, grabbing on to her shoulders and talking into her ear, "Arielle, that is your friend. Stiles is your brother's best friend, he is your friend."

"Stiles Stilinski is nothing to me," Arielle voice sounded like a thousand demons speaking at once in a chorus, "Stiles Stilinski must pay for his wrongdoings."

"Maybe he does," Aiden assured her, "but now is not the time for that."

Nothing was changing and the water began to rise higher and higher up on Stiles. It seemed like her plan was to drown him in mid air and leave him for dead.

Aiden jumped in front of her and kissed her straight on the lips, causing her arms to fall at her sides and wrap around his body in comfort and warmth. That kiss made Arielle feel wanted and cared for, like she wasn't making any mistakes and nothing bad was happening around her. He was her anchor in that moment. Arielle never had an anchor to stop her before. When the dark spirit took over, she usually waited until the darkness was tired and left her body, but now she had someone to stop it from making the biggest mistake of her young life. She let go from the kiss and saw Stiles fall onto the ground, who was aided by Scott in the same minute. They both scrambled to their feet and saw the monster that she had displayed, and it terrified her.

"We need to get out of here," Arielle begged, grabbing tightly onto Aiden's jacket.

He agreed and they both got into his motorcycle and left. He wasn't going to take her anywhere special after that. She was too shaken up and he could feel that because she was shaking as she held him and her face was buried in his back. They arrived at his house and took her inside, offering his jacket to her as she continued to cry.

"Shh," he calmed, "It's okay. You're okay."

He had his arms wrapped around her until he rested her carefully on the couch by his side, rubbing her back and hushing her as she cried.

"I almost killed him," she cried into his shoulder, "Aiden, I almost killed someone."

"But you didn't," he hushed, "He's alive and you're okay. You're with me now."

She looked up at him with the tears still flowing down her face, "I don't want to be that person ever again..."

"What person?" he asked.

"That terrible person," she cried, "Oh god, I'm a fucking terrible person..."

"Hey," he said sharply, "Look at me, Arielle... you are not a bad person... you're just... a little sensitive."

Arielle began to sniff several times, and he took her into his arms once again, rubbing her back continuously, and he wouldn't stop until the last tear was shed.

"Sensitive people aren't bad people," he said comfortingly, "They just express what they're feeling... I never want you to be ashamed of what you feel... can you promise me that? I want you to be everything that you are... you don't have to hold anything back in front of me..."

She looked at him again, then kissed his lips very softly and slowly. Arielle had never felt so wanted or comforted in this kind of way. It was like he really wanted to stick around and hold her, kiss her forehead and her lips, enjoy her company, and just hear about everything that as wrong with her. She felt perfect in his eyes, and that's the best thing she could have asked for. As she fell asleep in Aiden's arms that night, on the sofa, she dreamt about Stiles's face as a person she hardly recognized tried to kill him right in front of her. That's why she could never feel as happy as she wanted to be in that moment, because she knew that deep down inside, she was a monster who tried to kill someone who was so needed, and so perfect.


	11. Chapter 11

Arielle returned home before Melissa and Agent McCall could wake up. After Scott made sure Stiles got home okay, he told his parents that Arielle was already asleep in bed. She certainly felt well rested either way. Of course, they hadn't done anything more than sleep in each other's arms, but it was just as sweet and left Arielle wondering what an eventful night leading to a morning like that would be like.

"Arielle! Scott!" Melissa called, "Come downstairs please!"

She rose out of bed in her pajamas and came down the stairs followed by Scott. What they saw at the door finally made them both agree on what really made them happy.

"Isaac!" They both cheered.

Isaac was standing there, fully in tact, with a smile on his face with his hands bashfully in his pocket. Scott ran past Arielle straight to him and hugged him very tightly.

"Woah!" Isaac coughed, "It's good to see you too, man."

"Finally, a face to the name," Arielle said with a smile.

"I couldn't agree more," Isaac said, opening his arms to her, "It's so good to actually see your face instead of exchanging emails."

Arielle ran into Isaac's arms and felt even more safe now with two brothers living under the same roof as her.

"How was San Francisco?" Scott asked.

"It was unbelievable," he said breathlessly with his arm around Arielle, "The people were so awesome, the food was amazing."

"But there's no place like home, mind you," Melissa smiled, "Welcome home, Isaac."

"Thanks," he sighed happily.

Arielle told Aiden all about the great surprise she woke up to that morning. All throughout the school day, she would keep rambling on and on about Isaac and how excited she was to see him for the first time.

"And it turns out we both like blueberry pancakes," she giggled, "but he takes WAY more blueberries than me. I'm not really sure if that's a wolf thing or a boy thing."

"It could just as easily be both," Aiden laughed.

"Oh! But It was so great to be reunited like that," she sighed, leaning up against the lockers, "Scott was so happy, mom was so happy, I was so happy... it was amazing."

"I'll bet," he said shyly, looking down at the ground, "Hey... I wanna ask you something... my brother wants to throw this big party tonight and I was sort of wondering if you'd be okay with being my date..."

"Hmm," she pondered, "I'm not really fond of thousands of people rubbing up against each other while they make out and drink... but if you're there, then I'm there."

"Perfect," he sighed with relief, "I'd hate to be the only guy there not making out with somebody."

She tilted her head and bit her lip slightly, "You don't have to wait until the party to do that," she said in a low voice before kissing him with a newfound passion within her.

"Hey..." he cautioned, pushing her back a little bit, "We have plenty of time to do all of that... I'll even save a room for us... if you'd like."

Arielle was a little bit caught off guard by that question. Suddenly, all of this became so serious to her. Was he seriously just asking her if it was okay if they had sex at the party? Arielle had never done anything like that before in her entire life. She hadn't even had a boyfriend before, let alone had sex.

"Umm... I'll get back to you on that," she said nervously.

The school bell rang and Aiden kissed her on the cheek before walking down the other end of the hallway. The idea of the evening ahead of her made her more shaky than ever before. Thankfully, Kira came walking down the hall past her.

"Kira!" she called, pulling her jacket as she thudded against the locker.

"Whoa!" she coughed, "What on earth? Are you okay?"

"I really need your help," she begged, her voice getting faster as she spoke, "You see things are going really great with Aiden and I but I'm also really kind of on the fence about him because he's having the big party and I don't usually like parties where people get drunk and have sex, but then I was thinking what the ladder would be like after I spent the night on the couch in his arms, which felt really good, but I just don't know what I'm going to do now because I don't know if he's gonna get mad at me if I don't sleep with him tonight-."

"Wow, slow down there, sister," Kira said, blinking several times, "Start over. What's the matter, exactly?"

"I might have sex with Aiden tonight," she blurted out.

"Oh my god," she gasped, her eyes widening, "Wow! That's a really big step. Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"That's the thing," Arielle complained, "I don't know if I'm ready."

"Well, do you love him?" Kira asked sincerely.

"Love?" she asked, "I don't even know what love feels like, let alone knowing when I'm in it."

"Then... maybe you should find out," she suggested, "I know this going to kind of sound super creepy, but ignoring the fact that my first time was your brother... I loved him then as much as I love him now, if not more now. I just knew that he was the one who was going to always be there for me... and it was perfect."

"That's so sweet," Arielle sighed, "but then I get a mental image in my head of my brother and now I'm a little disgusted."

Kira laughed, then touched Arielle's shoulder, "Figure out your feelings for Aiden, then you'll know if it's right or not."

Arielle took her advice very seriously because she knew that she was right. What she said made actual sense to her. Two people who share that kind of experience really should be madly and forever in love, otherwise, it ruins the whole idea of that special connection with someone. Arielle at least felt strongly enough for Aiden to want to do this with him, but maybe they just needed to be together a little longer before she can really tell if they're in love. That's what she was going to tell Aiden. It was hard enough for her to tell him that he was going to get rejected, but his response would show what kind of guy he really is, which would be huge eye-opener, either way, for her in the end.

Halfway through the day, she approached Aiden in the hallway.

"Hey," she sighed.

"Hey beautiful," he said sweetly, kissing her forehead, and she leaned into him a little bit, "How are you?"

"I've been..." she wanted to say she had been thinking, but there was no need to be so morbid, "I've been okay."

"Yeah?" he asked, rubbing his hands on her shoulders, "So have I."

"That's good," she nodded.

"You never really gave me that answer about that room," he said, sliding his hand from her shoulder to take her hand in his, interlacing their fingers together, "I kinda need to give my brother a heads up just in case he wants to take Danny in there instead."

She chuckled and looked at the ground and the way they were standing. He as leaning up against the wall and she was in front of him. Their feet were placed one by one beside each other and their hands were laced together like heart strings.

"Aiden..." she sighed, looking up into his eyes with sincerity and fright. She paused to take a breath and started to look around her because she felt nervous about what he was going to do. That's when she saw the figure of the ghost that kept haunting her, standing on the other side of the hallway and looking at her dead in the eye. She would never be free of Stiles; she knew that now, but there was at least one way to get him out of her mind, even for a little while. Arielle rose her lips to Aiden's ear, "You better have that room saved just for you and I..."

When she backed her head away from him, he was biting his lip and grinning, "Consider it done."

"Perfect," she said in a low voice, then kissed him long and hard on the lips, "See you at 8..."

She walked away from him with a lot more confidence on her shoulders, and he couldn't help but watch her. That was his girlfriend, he had a right watch her hips sway more as she walked and her legs flex as she took a step. Aiden kept wondering how on earth a girl like that could be so goddamn perfect, but he didn't argue with it. He was just grateful for her either way.

Judging by the way Arielle was dressed, anyone off the street would have guessed that she was one of those special girls who came straight from a Las Vegas casino. Her dress was tight, short, and black with two thin straps going over her shoulders. Her heels were bright red and her makeup looked as though she stepped out of a magazine cover. That's how she snuck out of the house at 7:50 in the evening. Scott didn't know that she was leaving, and she wasn't going to tell him.

"Going somewhere?" a guy's voice asked from behind her, which made her jump and gasp a little bit. She turned around to see Isaac standing on the staircase with his arms crossed.

"No..." she said awkwardly, "Are you?"

"Actually yeah," he nodded, stalking down the stairs, "I heard about this really cool party that's happening tonight, but I'm not sure I'll go. You know, it's hosted by the twins, Aiden and Ethan. How cool is that?"

"Pretty cool," she answered.

"And how weird is it that it happens to be hosted by your boyfriend?" his voice became very serious, and she knew she was busted.

"Please, Isaac," she begged, "Don't tell mom, dad, or Scott about this. I beg you."

"I wasn't going to tell them," he shrugged, "I was just trying to get you to let me come with."

"What?" she asked, "You're not going to tattle."

"Why would I do that?" he said with a squint, "Then that would make me the bad brother. I wanna be the cool one."

"Well you're almost there, I promise."

"Good. So I'm going with you as your chaperone. Your parents and Scott will never know. I'll just text them and say we're out getting ice cream or something."

"Really?" she smiled, "That's really cool of you, Isaac."

"See?" he bragged, "I am the cool brother!"

"Shh!" she hushed, "Just get your car keys."

The two of them laughed together as Isaac grabbed his car keys from the bowl and Arielle grabbed her little black purse. They didn't talk about Aiden at all, in fact, Isaac could care less that she was dating Aiden. In fact, Allison was thinking about going and that's why he wanted to at least show up in the first place. The two of them always had fun at parties, so he figured it could be like a welcome home gift to himself to see her dressed up and to spend a little personal time with her. Arielle didn't know about this side of Allison Argent. She always seemed so cold to her, but the way Isaac talked about her, it was as if she was a beautiful mother bird who watched over everyone and was prepared to do anything to defend her family.

They arrived at the party, which was clearly indicated by the hundreds of lights and fog coming from every opening of the house, not to mention there were balloons tied to their mailbox. Arielle and Isaac parted ways as soon as they went into the house. The first thing she saw was a room of people dancing and jumping in sync to the loud music playing, then the fog machines that came from every single room.

"Arielle!" Aiden called, coming down from the upstairs.

"Hey cutie," she called back.

"Wow," he said, placing his hands on her hips once he approached her, "You look absolutely-."

"Gorgeous, stunning, beautiful?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

He brought his lips down to her ear and whispered very clearly, "Sexy..."

She grinned at hearing the tone of his voice combined with the feeling of his breath on her ear. It sent shivers up and down her arms.

"Shall we dance?" she whispered back.

"Anything for you, dear one," he said, holding out his hand to her, then leading her towards the dance floor.

This was Arielle's first house party, and it was a lot different than she thought it would be. Normally house parties had music slightly in the background while everyone had red or blue solo cups in their hands. There would be groups of people all around excluding other people in their conversations when somebody walked by. This was different. There was more dancing and more loud music combined with laser lights and fog. Ethan sure knew how to put a party together, that's for sure. The music had Arielle and Aiden closer than ever, with their bodies pressed up against each other as they kissed each other with hunger and passion while swaying to the beat. His hands started getting a little playful with her body, feeling up and down her waist and touching the sides of her ass. She knew it was time, at that point. She couldn't stay downstairs any longer.

"So..." she said, pressing her forehead against his, "How about that room..."

He smiled, showing all of his perfect white teeth, then took her hand and lead her up the stairs to the first door that he saw, leading to a plain blue painted room with one queen sized bed and a few furnishings, but nothing else. The second she walked in, Aiden followed her and shut the door, not hesitating to grab her hand and spin her around before kissing her passionately. With each passing second, things got more and more intense just in that one kiss that she couldn't keep quiet and let out just the tiniest sound of delight. That gave him his cue to start moving his hands towards that little zipper in the back of her dress. He began to pull it down all the way to her hips where it stopped. He picked her up so her legs wrapped around his waist, then he threw her onto the bed, making her laugh a little bit. The approving smile only made him more anxious for her.

As Aiden pressed his body on top of Arielle's, she moved her hands down to his sides to feel the toned muscles underneath. Finally, she took off his shirt and tossed it to the side, looking at the perfect body that existed underneath all this time. He kissed her again, moving his hips with hers as she made another sound out from her lips. His hands travelled to the straps on her shoulder, and he began to move one down her arm and off. He made his way to the second strap when he suddenly stopped and gasped.

"What?" she asked, touching his cheek, "What's wrong?"

"Get down!" Aiden shouted, pushing Arielle off the bed and shielding her with his arms.

One loud banging sound followed and there was a hole in the wall just above the bed. The window was completely shattered and glass fell all over the floor. That was quickly followed by another shot in the same place as Arielle screamed, grabbing onto her head tightly. Aiden was protectively holding her in his arms, wondering who on earth was trying to kill someone at this party.


	12. Chapter 12

The police department showed up at Ethan and Aiden's house and arrested all minors who were under the influence of alcohol. Thankfully, that wasn't Isaac, Ethan, Aiden, or Arielle. There were about 3 police cars with their flashing lights parked outside of the house. Aiden and Arielle were still inside that bedroom, standing against the wall nervously. Aiden had put his shirt back on and Arielle's dress was all zipped up and put together. They waited there for some kind of confirmation of safety.

The door opened and she squeezed her eyes shut tightly and leaned into Aiden's side.

"Arielle?" the Sheriff asked, flashing his flashlight onto them.

"Sheriff!" she gasped, and ran to hug him.

"Are you okay?" he asked, "Were either of you hurt?"

"We're both fine," Aiden sighed.

"Come on," the Sheriff said to Arielle, "Let's get you downstairs, okay?"

She nodded and walked with him down the stairs followed by Aiden.

"You don't understand!" a guy's voice was yelling from outside the police tape in the yard, "I have to go in there! My sister is in there!"

"Scott!" she called after him.

"Arielle!" he shouted back, trying to push past the two officers holding him back.

"Let him through!" the Sheriff called to the officers.

Scott ducked under the tape and ran towards the house. Arielle ran out of the door and met Scott in the yard, immediately jumping into his safe embrace once again.

"Oh my god, I thought something terrible had happened to you," Scott said in relief.

"I'm okay," she assured him, "Aiden heard the sound of the gun before the shots were even fired... he saved my life."

Scott looked into the house to see Aiden standing there, watching over Arielle like she was some kind of precious diamond he rescued and had returned to its rightful owner. Scott nodded to him and he nodded back.

"Come on," Scott said, rubbing her back gently, "Let's just go home, okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded, "Home sounds good."

Scott didn't let her say goodbye to Aiden, but instead kept his arm protectively around her and led her to his car parked just outside the police tape. He made sure she was securely in her seat before he ran around the car and got in himself. They didn't say anything on the ride home. All Arielle knew was coming was an 'I told you so' speech about how danger has come back to Beacon Hills and dating Aiden was a bad thing all along. She didn't need the lecture. The car pulled up in front of the McCall house and Isaac was already home and apparently had told Melissa everything because she was waiting at the door with her arms crossed and a worried look on her face.

"Thank god!" she cried when Arielle and Scott both came out of the car, "Thank god you're both okay!"

"I'm fine, mom," she said, hugging her mother to ease her pain.

"We both are," he added, hugging the both of them by wrapping his long arms around them.

"Do you need anything, sweetheart?" Melissa asked, placing her hands on either side of her cheeks, "Maybe some pancakes or something sweet? Maybe ice cream?"

"No thank you," she shook her head, "Sleep just sounds really good right now."

"Of course," Melissa smiled and kissed her forehead, "Isaac, make sure she gets there safely."

He nodded to her and led Arielle up the stairs. Moments later, Melissa was in bed as well, but Scott was kept up, staring at the wall of the living room and wondering what could have happened back there. Isaac came down the stairs.

"She won't sleep yet, but at least she's in bed and comfortable," he said, "I also checked out her windows, nothing is going to harm her as of right now."

"It's just so weird," Scott replied, "Who would want to hurt Arielle?"

"For all we know, the gunman could have been after Aiden," Isaac suggested.

"Then wouldn't something like this have happened already?" Scott asked, "I'm almost positive they were after Arielle."

"But why?" Isaac sat down on the couch next to Scott.

"Well... something did happen the other night. Arielle was mad at Stiles and I and she kinda went nymph crazy on us. She turned into this possessed spirit thing and nearly killed Stiles."

"Remind me not to get on her bad side..."

"I know, right?" Scott chuckled, "but she was doing that outside AND in public where anyone could have seen her..."

"Are you suggesting that's what the gunman is after?"

"Could be. Arielle is a supernatural unlike any of us. She has powers that are new to Beacon Hills. Someone could be after that kind of power."

After a few more minutes of creating pointless theories, they had concluded that whoever was behind this attack was after Arielle and her magic. So, Scott went to tell her the news and he knocked ever so gently on her bedroom door, but found himself walking in anyway only to find Arielle resting in her bed with her eyes open and headphones in her ears.

"Hey..." he said softly.

Arielle sat up a little bit and took the headphones out, "Hi..."

"How are you feeling?" he asked, sitting down on the bed.

"I've been better," she shrugged, "How else am I supposed to feel after someone shot a gun in my direction?"

"That's actually what I came to talk to you about... Isaac and I have been talking and we think that someone is-."

"After my powers," she finished, "I figured. If someone was after Aiden, they would have taken care of that a long time ago. Which means they were after me, and no one else would be after me unless they wanted something from me. Not to mention I kind of displayed my powers to the world the other night..."

"So what are you gonna do?" Scott asked.

"I don't know," she shrugged, "Hide, isolate myself, not go out on weekends as often-."

"You know that's not what I'm talking about," Scott said, touching her hand, "I know this may be a hard thing to think about, but being with Aiden while this is happening is only going to put him in danger."

"I know," she said quietly, "but I just don't want to lose him... I just got him..."

"Well it's not my decision," he sighed, standing up and stretching, "the choice is really all yours... goodnight, baby sister."

"Night," she said, staring at her bedsheets and tangling her headphones in her hands.

Scott was right. There was a choice that had to be made. What made Arielle think really hard about was whether or not she cared about Aiden enough to keep him from getting in any more danger. The answer was clearly yes, but she didn't want to lose him because he had taken such good care of her. He was her anchor and she couldn't just toss him away like a dirty sock, it was much too difficult. Arielle had to decide, and fast, before something really bad would happen to anyone else in town.


	13. Chapter 13

The sun was shining and yet no warmth came from it. Arielle didn't feel anything for the entire school day the next day. She was tired and she was far too worried to be thinking about anything else except what happened the previous evening. At least she got to sleep for a few hours on the decision that she had to make. What really altered her decision was a dream that she had. Arielle was in bed with Aiden and they were happy, as if they weren't interrupted at all, but when he got up to put his shirt back on, the shots were fired and he was dead on the floor, causing a loud scream to leave her lips.

That's when Arielle knew that she had to do something about Aiden if she wanted to keep him safe from harm. She sent him a note in history class telling him to meet her on the bench outside the building after school, and so he did. He showed up looking as handsome as ever, but he knew nothing good would follow this conversation.

"How are you holding up?" Aiden asked.

"Okay," she said plainly, "I don't really know how else to say it."

"I'm not expecting you to pour your heart out or anything," he said, taking her hand in his, "I just hope we get a second chance at a great night."

Images of the dream flashed in her mind and it made her take her hand away from Aiden's and her eyes started watering.

"What's wrong?" Aiden asked, trying to wipe a tear away from her cheek.

"What's wrong is that I've been going out of my mind all day long," she whimpered, "I don't know what's going to happen to me or anyone else around me for a while, and that scares the hell out of me."

"You don't have to be afraid," Aiden assured her, "I'm here, we're all here, to protect you."

"Aiden, don't you understand?" she cried, "Being with me is just far too dangerous."

He sat back on the bench and sighed, staring into the empty air in front of him.

"Because you think I'm the bad guy," he huffed.

"No, I don't," Arielle assured him, "I think you're full of nothing but good things... but it's me who's the bad guy this time... I'm the one putting you in harms way."

Aiden sighed heavily, "So you're breaking up with me?" he asked.

Arielle nodded and wiped a puddle of tears off her cheek.

He nodded understandingly, but also angrily at the same time, "This is because of Stiles..."

"What?" Arielle asked confusingly, "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Arielle," he hissed, "Everything you've ever done with me is because you saw the way he looked at you. I know that whenever you touched me or kissed me or even told me you wanted have to sex with me, you looked right at him and saw how badly he wants you."

"That's not true," she lied.

"Yes it is. When you almost killed him that night, it nearly tore you in half."

"That was because I had almost killed somebody, Aiden. That had nothing to do with Stiles."

"I bet you can't look me in the eye and tell me that there is nothing going on between the two of you."

Arielle sniffed a few times, "This isn't about Stiles. This is about me not dating anyone at all to keep the people around me safe from harm's way."

"Bullshit," he said under his breath.

"What can I do to make you believe me?" she begged.

"I don't think anything you say will make me believe you," he argued, "Arielle, I see the way he looks at you. I saw the anger and jealousy in his eyes at the movies and I saw it that night when you nearly killed him. He wants you and I know deep down inside you, you want him too."

"That has nothing to do with romantic feelings," Arielle argued back, "He's just watching over me because I'm his best friend's sister. The only reason he looks at me the way he does is because he feels the same way Scott does. Scott had that same look."

"No he didn't. I'm a guy, I know when a guy looks a girl he wants."

"Please, Aiden, don't think this is about Stiles. I'm protecting you. I'm keeping you safe-."

"Forget it, Arielle," he spat, getting up and leaving her on the bench alone in the cold. She was crying into her hands now and she heard no one else around her to watch her cry.

"How much did you hear?" Arielle asked Scott, who was now standing beside the bench.

"Enough," he sighed.

Arielle looked up at him and for the first time in a very long time, he actually looked at her like he loved her and supported her decisions. Ever since she started dating Aiden, she had only see a glare of ice cold hatred. It was really wonderful to see her brother love her again. She fell into his arms, crying, as he hushed her. Scott felt bad for Arielle. No matter how bad he thought Aiden was for her, she still had genuine feelings for him. He was her first kiss, her first boyfriend, and almost her first love. There was no easy way to get over that. Scott knew this pain far too well.


	14. Chapter 14

A week had passed by and the temperatures were rising as the spring time was getting closer and closer. Spring was always Arielle's favorite time of year because of the new flowers blooming and the perfect spring time warmth that was accompanied by a soft breeze. California was the place to be in a season like spring. Although Aiden still gave her menacing glares in the hallways and in history class, she still didn't let it get in the way of her excitement and anticipation for spring time.

No dangers had come her way since the party happened, and breaking up with Aiden started looking more and more like a good thing, rather than a bad thing. He wasn't her ghost the way Stiles was, which was the best thing she could have asked her. The real problem was that Aiden was right in some ways. Stiles did look at her in a way she was unfamiliar with; that's why it scared her so much.

Nothing scared her more than when she was up in her room all alone with the music playing on the stereo. She was playing "Say Something" by A Great Big World, the song that she had imagined in her mind when she was in the movies that night. "Say Something" turned into "Echo" by Jason Walker, the song she listened to at night when she was especially sad about her and Aiden's break up. "Echo" continued to play as she folded her new laundry on her bed. When Arielle turned around to put her clothes away, she saw her own personal ghost standing right in front of her, which made her drop her laundry on the floor.

"Shit!" she hissed, "Stiles... what the hell are you doing here? You scared the living daylights out of me!"

"Sorry! Sorry," Stiles said, bending down to pick of the pile of clothes for her, "I didn't mean to scare you."

"Sure you didn't," she glared, putting the clothes back on the bed, "What are you doing here anyway Stilinski?"

"I was just checking up on you, you know," he said casually.

"Does my brother know you're here?" Arielle asked, turning around and raising an eyebrow at him.

"No... not exactly," he said, scratching his nose, then behind his ear.

"Do my parents know? Isaac?" she asked again, crossing her arms.

"Not really," he shook his head, "and let's keep it that way, shall we?"

She rolled her eyes and returned to her laundry, "What do you want?"

"Nothing really," he said, "I just thought you might want some company since... you know... everything happened with Aiden and all. I kinda came by just to say... you know, that I'm s-sorry about what happened..."

This wasn't happening, Arielle thought. Here he was, Stiles Stilinski, talking about her break up with Aiden and pouring salt into her open wound. She placed her hands on her bed firmly and began to hold back her tears. How could he just bring that up again? and him of all people? All this time it seemed like he was the only thing standing in the way of her and Aiden's happiness. Now he was here and the track was changing on her iPod. "I Should Go" by Levi Kreis. Fucking perfect, she thought, listening to the lyrics about a guy who wanted company with a special someone but knowing that he shouldn't be there.

Arielle turned to face Stiles, and she couldn't help but just fall into his arms and cry, because no one else was there to rub her back and calm her tears.

"Hey..." he said softly, "Hey now... don't cry over him, okay...?"

That didn't stop the tears from continuing to fall down her face onto his sweet smelling jacket and shirt. Everything about this was wrong; so _very_ wrong. The break up wasn't about Stiles and she had spent countless hours trying to convince herself that.

"You deserve so much better than him," he whispered into her hair.

That's what really did it to her. She began to back away from him, because love wasn't something she could afford to have. She had just broken up with Aiden because she was afraid for his life, and now crying in Stiles's arms just encouraged him even more. She couldn't lead him on any more than he lead her on that night. She wasn't going to be that kind of person, not this time.

"But I don't..." she whispered back, "I don't deserve anyone right now..."

"Don't say that-."

"You don't get it," she said, turning her back to him, "I don't expect you to."

"Come on, Arielle... any guy would be dumb not to want you, okay? So don't tell yourself that you don't deserve anyone's love or... affection..."

"Stop," she begged, stepping a step to the side away from him.

"Why?" he asked.

"Well how about reason number 1, I just broke up with Aiden last week and that wound is still there," she argued, "Reason number 2, my life is in danger, in case your dad didn't tell you. I almost died. Somebody out there wants me dead and adding an unnecessary love in my life is just going to get you hurt-."

"Me?" he asked, his eyes glistening with hope.

"A-Aiden," she coughed, "It's going to get Aiden- or ANYONE hurt. I just can't do this... I can't do this with anyone because I hurt people. Death is basically at my doorstep and anyone who tries to beat him there is going to get hurt. I almost KILLED you Stiles! Do you remember none of that!?"

Stiles took a deep breath and made a bold move to place his hands on her shoulders. He looked into her eyes, her beautiful brown eyes, and appreciated how sweet and warm they looked against her tan skin and brown perfect hair.

"I should have taken you when I had the chance..." he whispered.

"It's too late for that..." she whispered back, but then her voice grew into a stern and argumentative tone, "You had the chance to have me before any of this happened. I don't think you understand, Stiles. I wanted you..." that gave him all the confidence in the world as he stepped closer to her and placed his forehead against hers, "I wanted you so bad..."

She could feel something setting off inside of her, like a fire of some sort that made her want to do things she'd regret instantly.

"Please, Arielle," he begged, readjusting himself to place his hand on the back of her head underneath all of her hair, "I'm sorry I let you down, but I'm not gonna do that again..."

He was her temptation, more than Aiden ever was. Aiden was the bad boy, but Stiles was a whole different category. It was the way his touch made her want him and the way he whispered as his breath touched her skin. Her lips were so close to his. If she just puckered her lips by a millimeter, they would kiss and she would be goner. She wanted to so badly, but when the thought of reality set in her mind, she ducked her head out of the way and left his embrace.

He sighed in response and put his hands back in his pockets, "Yeah... I should probably go..."

"Yeah," she agreed, "I think you really should."

She turned away and started doing her laundry once again. It was possible, she thought, that Stiles wasn't going to come back after this. They were so close to doing what she had been thinking of doing since that night at the lake, and he made her insides jump and dance like fireworks. How many times is she going to get a chance to have someone like that practically begging her for her love.

"Stiles!" she called, but then she suddenly felt something tug at her lungs, like they were imploding and begging for nourishment.

Arielle fell flat on the floor, gasping for air as her throat and her insides were drying up. She was coughing intensely as she reached her hand out of her door. Stiles heard her fall and ran back into her room, seeing Arielle on the ground. It was like a punch to the gut, but he'd deal with that later. Stiles ran to the nearest bathroom and picked up a plastic cup, feeding the water to her until she gasped and began to breathe once more.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, breathing heavily, "Yes, I'm good now."

"Here," he said, offering to help stand her up.

Scott heard all of the ruckus and came into the room, watching Arielle catch her breath.

"What happened in here?" Scott asked worriedly.

"I don't know..." Stiles said, still holding onto Arielle's shoulders as if she might fall.

"Arielle..." Scott said quietly approaching her, "What happened to you?"

"I really think someone's after me now..." she nodded, "Someone just stole all of the water from my body."


	15. Chapter 15

Agent McCall had felt entirely useless now that there were things happening to Arielle that he couldn't figure out. He had started to open countless greek mythology books and began to read, but nothing in there could explain how someone could deprive Arielle of water in her body. Nothing about it made sense. That didn't mean that something couldn't be done about it. Agent McCall was always relentless in keeping his daughter safe, and he wasn't about to stop now.

"We need to do something," Melissa insisted, "ANYTHING. The more we just sit around and do nothing, the worse the situation gets."

"I agree," Agent McCall confirmed, "That's why I think we need to send her away for a little bit."

"Dad..." Arielle protested.

"Not to Arizona," he reassured her, "There's a safe house specifically for the Beacon Hills Police Force. It's to keep our Witness Protection clients safe."

"But it hasn't been used in years," Stiles said, coming into the dining room with another glass of water for Arielle to take.

"Thank you..." she mouthed to him.

"You know it?" Melissa asked.

"Yeah," Stiles nodded, taking a seat at the table in between Isaac and Arielle, "My dad told me about it once or twice, and I've seen it. I know where it is."

"Where?" Scott asked.

"Just on the outskirts of town," Stiles said, "It's deep in the woods."

"The only way to navigate there is to have instructions from the police force," Agent McCall said.

"So you're suggesting that Arielle hides there," Isaac repeated, "but for how long? I've known her for less time than all of you and I know she's not gonna want to stay there for a long time."

"He's got a point," Arielle nodded.

"As long as we need her to be there," Agent McCall ordered, "We'll send a guardian with her, if we have to."

"What about Stiles?" Scott asked.

"What?!" Stiles and Arielle asked, one in frustration and the other in disbelief and excitement.

"Yeah," Scott nodded, "He knows where the safe house is and he probably knows his way around it and how to stay hidden, right?"

"Y-Yes," he coughed, "I totally know how to do all of that stuff..."

"Plus, nobody trusts Stiles more than Arielle, right?" Scott asked.

"Yeah sure," she said nonchalantly.

"Then it's settled," Agent McCall said, "Stiles, you and Arielle leave in the morning for the cabin. You have the night."

"Delightful," Arielle said sarcastically.

Arielle wasn't upset to be going to the cabin because she didn't like him, she was upset to go to the cabin with him because she did like him, and that was dangerous. Ever since that night at the party, Arielle had strayed from danger. Danger had betrayed her and turned from a good thing into a bad thing. Of course Scott trusted his best friend to keep his sister safe for a while, he had no idea that his best friend and his sister almost kissed moments before anything bad happened. Now Stiles was using Scott's trust to get closer to Arielle.

In the morning, Arielle brought down her large suitcase down the stairs and said her goodbyes to her parents for the time being, then she was in Stiles's car and they drove off towards the woods. This time, as they drove down the long winding roads, she was looking for anything but conversation, which wasn't enough for Stiles.

"You excited?" he asked, looking over at her and not getting a response from her, so he tried again, "You know there's a lake right next to the cabin. That's good, right?" Still no response, "Do you think you packed enough?" Only silence followed. Eventually he just gave up and continued to drive down the road. Arielle didn't want to talk to him and he couldn't blame her.

An hour passed when they pulled up to the middle of nowhere. He took the keys out of the ignition.

"What is this?" Arielle asked.

"Well the rest is about a minute's walk," Stiles said, "If we could drive into the cabin, that'd be a little too obvious, don't you think?"

Arielle glared at him, then unbuckled her seat belt, "Yeah I guess."

She went to the back of the Jeep and pulled out her suitcase from the back seat.

"Do you need help with-."

"No."

Stiles lead the way on a path with no trail through a bunch of trees until they reached a small brown cabin made completely from wood. It was only one story and it had a green roof to blend in with the rest of the trees. The whole place was rather wide, however, and the door wasn't even a door, it was a screen. Inside was a fireplace directly in front and a little to the left, which was surrounded by two chairs and a couch. There was a bed directly beside the doorway.

"This one's your room," Stiles said, opening the screen door, "I'm gonna sleep on the cot over here, but don't worry, I'll put a curtain up so you can have your privacy."

"Whatever," she said, opening the door and throwing her suitcase inside.

"The kitchen's over here," Stiles said, walking to the other side of the small room to show the kitchen with a little stove, sink, washer, and fridge. The cot was next to the kitchen table. It seemed as thought Stiles had significantly less room than Arielle did.

"It should be full by now," he said, hitting the fridge, "and the bathrooms are on the other side of your bed in that corner," he pointed to the door beside the fireplace, "There's a shower in there too."

"Cool," Arielle said, walking back over towards her bed and sitting down on it.

"So you're not gonna say any more than 3 syllables to me?" Stiles asked angrily.

"I'd prefer to," she said and then flashed a sassy frown.

"Okay that's it," Stiles said, marching towards her, "I'm tired of you ignoring me. I'm giving up a lot back home just to be here with you to keep you safe. You are in no place to be a bitch about it, okay? I won't accept that here."

"You won't accept that?" she argued.

"Look at that! 5 syllables, we're making some progress here."

Stiles walked away towards the dock that was directly outside of the screen door. Arielle followed him angrily.

"What makes you think you can boss me around?" she asked.

"Your brother trusts me to take care of you here," Stiles snapped, "and goddammit that's what I'll do if I fucking die trying, okay!?"

"You didn't HAVE to come here. If you're so fucking miserable, why don't you just go back to Beacon Hills and forget about me and all of this."

"You know why I can't do that..."

"Why?" she asked, backing him up onto the dock that was moving underneath the motion of the water.

"You know why."

"Why Stiles?"

"Arielle..."

"WHY!?"

"Because I fucking lo-."

Stiles couldn't walk any further back and fell straight into the water behind him with a loud shout.

"Stiles!" Arielle yelled, jumping into the water after him.

He was falling down towards the bottom of the 7 foot lake and Arielle grabbed his shirt, pulling him back up to the dock.

"Are you okay?" she asked as he coughed.

Stiles was shaking his head several times to get the water off his face, and then he grinned menacingly once he saw what she did.

"What?" she asked.

"You saved my life, didn't you?" he smiled.

"Did not."

"If you didn't get me, I would have drowned. Admit it, Arielle, you like me!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

Arielle didn't know what else to do besides splash a hand full of water into his face, causing him to completely fall back into the water and swim around for a little. The water was too dark to see into it from the surface, but then she felt a tug on her leg and she went under, seeing Stiles with a smile on his face.

"You are a goof," she said.

Stiles couldn't talk underwater, so he just playfully pushed her and she laughed.

They played in the water together for several minutes like two little kids in the pool. They even played Marco-Polo for a little while as if they were still 7 years old. That was the way Arielle liked to be with Stiles. There was no romantic pressure or danger around her in the middle of nowhere. There was just her friendship, and that made her smile.


	16. Chapter 16

Scott had brought Isaac and Kira out to the cabin to check up on how Arielle and Stiles were doing with the new move. Curiously enough, neither of them were to be found inside the cabin. They weren't in any of the rooms, not even the bathrooms. They both suddenly came in laughing and soaking wet.

"Hey guys," Arielle said, "What are you guys doing here so soon?"

"I think the more important question is," Isaac interjected, "what were you guys up to?"

"Up to?" Stiles asked, "We weren't up to anything."

"Yeah, he fell in the water," Arielle laughed.

"In my defense, she may have pushed me," he defended himself.

"I did not push you!" she laughed.

"You kind of did."

"Did not!"

"Oh, so you don't call that menacing walk towards me pushing?"

"that wasn't a push... I lead you into the water."

"I think I like pushed better."

"Whatever Stilinski. I saved your life."

"Ah! So you admit it!"

"Guys!" Scott shouted and they both looked at him.

"Yeah, what's up?" Arielle asked.

"We're here just to fill you guys in on what's been going on with the research," Scott said.

"And?" Stiles asked.

"We haven't found anything yet," Kira answered, "We saw this one really good book about nymphs in Greece, but it had several pages ripped out of it."

"So now we gotta find who ripped the pages," Isaac finished.

"But whoever did this can't be a normal human," Scott added.

"Well the only supernatural person who wants me dead is Aiden," Arielle muttered.

"Are you sure you don't know anyone else who is like you?" Scott asked.

"No..." Arielle replied, "Not personally. I don't know any other nymphs, especially not in California OR Arizona."

"Well, either way," Kira interrupted, "This is going to take a lot longer than we thought."

"How long?" Stiles asked.

"About 4 weeks," Isaac answered.

"4 weeks!?" Arielle and Stiles shouted.

"You mean to tell me that I'll be stuck in the middle of nowhere with Stiles!?" Arielle complained to Scott.

"I know it's weird," Scott insisted, "but I'll come visit you every Saturday if you want me to."

"That'd be heavenly," Arielle sighed.

"Come on, guys," Kira said, "We promised your dad we'd have lunch with him."

Arielle turned to Isaac and gave him a hug, followed by Scott, whose hug was much longer than Isaac's.

"Hang in there baby sister," he whispered.

"I will..."

Scott, Isaac, and Kira all left through the path in the woods and Stiles and Arielle now realized they had all the time in the world to do absolutely nothing. They mainly didn't speak to each other for the rest of the day, so when night fell, Stiles decided to sit on his bed and think about all kinds of random stuff that he could come up with in his head. Moments later, he went from thinking about the stars to Arielle's eyes, how they were dark and deep like the night sky. He looked over his shoulder to the curtain that hung nicely and sturdily. The light was turned on on her side of the cabin, so he could see the shadow of her sitting there on her bed.

He saw her perfect figure stand up and stretch for a little bit, then she walked over to one side of the room and pulled out a shirt. Stiles knew that if he kept watching this happen in front of him, then he'd be a goner for sure. However, he just kept on watching, letting the temptation get to him. She threw her baggy shirt over her head to reveal her even more perfect and natural frame as she stretched her arms up to put the rest of her clothes on. Stiles knew that she wouldn't want him watching her like that.

Stiles pushed the curtain back and walked into her space of the cabin.

"What do you want?" she asked.

He let the curtain fall back its place and saw her dressed in baggy sweatpants and a tight tank-top. He was still stunned from what he saw, so he basically stalked inside the space, scaring Arielle just a little bit. It didn't make sense what he was doing in there until he walked over to the lamp that was giving him a perfect view of her. He touched the lamp and then turned it off.

"You should really keep this off," he said in a deep voice.

Arielle was right beside him now and he didn't know how she got like that, but they were so close and all the lights were off, so all they could see was what the moon allowed them to see.

"Don't kiss me," she whispered.

"I wasn't going to," Stiles whispered back.

He then touched her shoulder lightly as she headed back behind the curtain to his side of the room. Arielle fell on the bed and she couldn't help but think why he wouldn't want to kiss her now, since they were all alone in the woods with no one else around. It was weird. What was especially weird was how she tried to box him out of her life for so long only to want him to touch her. It was a longing she couldn't control, and the fact that she was losing control was scratching at her like sand paper.


	17. Chapter 17

2 weeks and Stiles hadn't been more proud of himself in his entire life. For 2 weeks he managed not to tempt himself by watching Arielle change or thinking about the way her hair looks when she gets out of the shower or the lake. Occasionally he thought of those things when there was absolutely nothing else to think about, but Arielle seemed happier when they were just bonding as friends, so that's exactly what he continued to do. He worked effortlessly to show her that he was just her friend, and nothing else.

The more Stiles insisted that they were friends, the more Arielle resisted the temptation. 2 weeks was a long time to live with somebody that attractive and not do anything about it. She was proud of herself for choosing his life over her own pleasures, but it was also killing her at the same time.

Around lunch time, Arielle was waiting on the porch for Stiles to bring out two plates of food for the both of them. Eventually he did so.

"One turkey with cheddar for you, madam," he said, placing the plate in her hands.

"Thank you," she said softly, taking the plate from his hand.

As both their hands were on the plate, they looked up at each other. It was the way that Arielle looked at him that made him want to shoot himself in the foot or take an eternity's worth of cold showers to get him to stop thinking about his best friend's sister the way that he did. Arielle quickly took the plate from him and they sat down and ate their lunch together. In a way, this trip was like a little vacation for Arielle, one that she didn't mind at all.

"Hey..." she said after they finished their lunch, "I wanna go for a swim later."

"Okay," Stiles nodded, "but you know I'm going to have to watch you. Uh... to be safe and all that."

"I don't see why you wouldn't," she grinned.

Moments later, Arielle was in her one-piece bathing suit and jumped in the water off the dock. Stiles followed behind her with a smile on his face as he watched her swim around being so happy in the water the way she usually would. Her smile was so perfect, he thought. She dipped her head up from under the water and waved to him. He waved back at her.

"Having fun?" he asked.

"Of course-."

Suddenly her head ducked back under the water before she could finish talking. That didn't look like a good sign to Stiles, especially since the water was moving from where she was before. Then he saw a hand reach up and come back down, causing Stiles to completely lose it.

"Arielle!" he shouted and threw off his shirt before diving in after her.

He could see as well under water as she could. All he saw was green and unclear water. It scared him even more when he looked around in all different directions and there was no sign of her. He saw a hand reach out to her and he grabbed it, touching the bottom of the lake and pushing off to pull her away from whatever had a hold of her. Arielle came up and out of the water onto the surface, holding onto Stiles tightly for security.

"What the hell was that?" Stiles gasped.

"I don't know," she cried, cowering into his side.

He noticed the shaking and distressed girl in his arms and lead her back towards the latter to the dock. He pushed her up onto it, then sat beside her, wrapping his arms around her with a towel to dry her off.

"You saved me..." she said quietly.

He looked at her and saw her beautiful eyes on her innocent face.

"Yeah," he sighed, "I guess I did."

Stiles was brave and strong and protective. He was her hero now after she had tried so hard to save his life, what she really needed was for him to save her life instead. Arielle didn't have to be the strong one all the time, sometimes other people can help too. That's when Stiles made the biggest mistake and planted a kiss on her lips unlike any kiss Arielle had felt.

His lips were wet, which didn't make her complain at all, but his kiss was also different, a good different. He was gentle, but strong at the same time, and he moved with her lips so he could fit her mold perfectly. But when he let go of the kiss, Arielle's face was still blank with either confusion or doubt, and he stroked a piece of her wet hair away from her face.

"God I love you..." he whispered.

That was the last thing that Arielle was expecting to hear was those words leave his mouth. She was in too deep. HE was in too deep, as far as she was concerned. She was reckless and irresponsible and let her feelings get in the way of her better judgement. Like it or not, someone was just trying to kill Arielle, which reminded her why she couldn't be with Stiles, because if he really cared about her, then he could possibly lose her, and she didn't want to see him cry or be upset or anything like that. It was torture to think about Stiles hurt in any kind of way. Everything was so jumbled and confusing inside her head that it soon became too much for her to handle.

Arielle got up and ran back inside the cabin, slamming the screen door behind her and running into the bathroom, slamming that door behind her as well. She had gone 2 weeks without anything happening and now it was all coming out now. Stiles was in love with Arielle, and now Arielle had to figure out if loving him back was worth the risk.


	18. Chapter 18

Stiles had to admit that getting his feelings out in the open like that was like letting in sunshine after a cold and frosty winter, feelings the snow uncover all of the beautiful things that spring had to offer. However, having Arielle run away the second he let his feelings out in the open was like a punch in the gut. The last thing he wanted to see was Arielle walking away from him. He wasn't going to tolerate it for one more second, so he walked back from the dock into the cabin. Arielle was standing near the bathroom door.

"Don't you hide from me Arielle McCall," he demanded, "Goddammit, we are going to talk about what's going on here."

"Nothing's going on here," she insisted.

"EVERYTHING is going on here," he said, exaggerating the connection between the two of them with his arms.

"God, why do you have to be so persistent?" she asked.

"Me? Persistent?" he laughed, "I've been working my ass off to not notice how fucking perfect you are and I've been working especially hard to not do anything about it."

"Do you think this is easy for me?"

"YES! I think this is EXACTLY what you want! You WANT me to suffer from this. You want to see my face when we're so close to having a moment and you reject me. You feed off how I feel when I want you so bad but I can't have you. You can't even deny it because you know it's true."

"I told you why we can't do this. You know very well what's happening here and yet you still go ahead and victimize yourself!"

"Me!? I'm victimizing myself?" he scoffed, "That is RICH coming from you. Little miss needs protection 24/7 like you're a fucking china doll. You are not a fucking china doll, you are a woman. You are a strong, confident, proud woman who needs to take control of her life every once in a fucking while."

"You mean I need to stop believing what Scott says, that me being in a relationship hurts the one I'm with... you just want me to take charge of my life so I'll finally go out with you."

"You know what? Maybe I do want that. Maybe I want you so fucking badly that I'm willing to go to the ends of the earth to see you smile. Is that such a bad thing? Isn't that supposed to be a good thing?"

"Not when we're in the situation that we're in," she sighed, "I'm sorry, but it's just too much for me."

"Arielle..." he said, grabbing her shoulders so she faced him, "Look at me. Look in my eyes and tell me right now that you're not devastated that we can't be together and that you won't do anything you can to make sure that you CAN have me."

"Stiles-."

"And let's not forget that you wanted me before Aiden even showed up. It was a choice and you chose him-."

"You chose Lydia before I even had the chance to choose!" she argued, "That KILLED me! I was just getting introduced to the idea of love and you took it away from me! So excuse me if I'm not so pleased with the idea of trusting you again."

"How can you say no to this?" he asked, taking her hands in his, "How can you say no the way your heart beats faster when you touch me or the way we talk together for hours and hours without ever stopping."

"Because then I'll be the selfish one!" she admitted, "If I choose you to make me happy, then I risk your life by using you as my human shield. I'd much rather see you alive and standing in front of me than loving you. Because loving you is selfish."

"Love isn't selfish," Stiles said, taking her face in his hands, "Love is beautiful and selfless and wonderful to be in. I've been in it hopelessly for far too long to fall in it again and have you not give me the time of day."

"Stiles... you need to back away from me..."

He took his hands off of her cheeks.

"Fine..." he sighed, "but promise me one thing... you'll kiss me once before I die."

"I can't promise that," she shook her head, "I don't think I'll ever kiss you ever again."

That truly made his heart sink, and so he went behind the curtain to his small side of the room and lay in his bed until night came and moon rose. It was night time already and Arielle and Stiles had hours to sit on the conversation they had just had. It soon came to Stiles that they were fighting over loving each other. They both clearly loved each other, but there were ridiculous things holding them back. So he vowed that nothing would hold him back on this night.

Stiles got up and pushed the curtain away enough that it wouldn't fall back into place. He saw Arielle still standing with her back facing him, but she knew he was there. He had made enough sounds already with his walking and the curtain for her recognize that he was there. Arielle figured out while they were in a cabin in the woods where no one could find them, a little risk was worth taking. So Stiles approached her and pushed her hair back away from her neck, leaving him plenty of room to place small tempting kisses up and down her neck and collar bone. It was something that she had never experienced before, the feeling of his smooth lips grazing so gently over her skin.

"I love you too..." she whispered back.

His lips left her skin and she turned around looking into both of his eyes. Enough was enough. Stiles didn't let her get away this time, so he wrapped his arms around her body and kissed her as hard as he could and she responded this time. Her lips moved with his in what seemed like two puzzle pieces finding each other after all this time. At first they were just enjoying the moment of their first real reciprocal kiss that seemed too perfect next to the roaring fire that reflected off their faces. Their kisses then slowed as he moved his hands up and down her body and her hands just reaching underneath his t-shirt, feeling the skin underneath there, causing goosebumps up and down his arms. He moved back down to her neck, causing her to feel that same feeling that she felt when she was resisting him a few weeks ago.

"Wait, Stiles," she said breathlessly.

He was breathing as heavily as her when he spoke, "Yes?"

"I've never..." she took in another deep breath, "I've never done this before..."

"Never?" he asked to her neck as his voice grew to a whisper, "I'll let you in on a secret... neither have I..." She moaned at the feeling of his breath against her neck again, "Maybe we could learn together."

She nodded in response and that gave him permission to pick her up by her waist and place her gently on the bed with him on top of her. This wasn't like the experience with Aiden at all. This was like the experience that Kira had described. She was hopelessly in love with Stiles at this point. She loved his laugh, his sense of humor, his personality, she loved everything about him and everything seemed so perfect between them. She could feel that tension rising between their two bodies and that tension ached, making her beg for more.

And so they learned from each other, moving with each other as they studied each other's habits, the moans they would make that were perfectly in sync. Thank god they kept condoms in the safe house supply, he thought to himself in the midst of the moment with Arielle. They were under the bed covers together, connecting with each other in a way no one else could ever connect with them. They were both each other's first times, which made the moment so much better than either of them could have ever imagined.

So this was what it felt like, Arielle thought. She was glad it was Stiles she was sharing this moment with. After all that built of anger, aggression, and sexual desire, it came out perfectly for that specific night. It began to rain outside, which made it even more romantic.

As the night drew to a close and they fell apart in the most beautiful exhaustion, Stiles was still on top of Arielle, looking at her eyes, then kissed her lips softly.

"You realize I'm never letting you go after this," he said, completely out of breath.

"Good..." she whispered, running her fingers through the hair on the back of his head.

He fell beside her and Arielle moved to her side, resting her hand on his chest as she closed her eyes, taking in all of that used energy between them and relishing in the moment of falling asleep in his arms. It was definitely worth the risk.


	19. Chapter 19

It wasn't a dream. Everything was real. Arielle was afraid that when she woke up, she'd be somewhere in Phoenix wishing for a real family to come and ease her broken heart, but instead her heart was more mended than it could have ever been. But even better, her heart found it's perfect match, and his arms were wrapped around her when she woke up to the sight of him. She sat up a little bit and held the bed sheet to her chest, looking around at the scene around her. It was a romantic little cabin with the perfect fire place and a gorgeous view of the lake. She hadn't realized how beautiful it was until now.

"Morning," Stiles's weary voice said as his hand touched her bare back.

Arielle leaned back on her arm and placed her hand on his collar bone, admiring every perfect inch of him, "Good morning."

"How'd you sleep?" he asked.

"Perfectly," she said, smiling down at him.

"Great," he grinned, "because I have never slept so good in my entire life."

She laughed and leaned down to kiss him, hovering a little bit closer over him.

"I love you so much," he whispered.

Arielle smiled and kissed him again, then whispered against his lips, "I'd be crazy not to love YOU."

In the midst of this perfect morning, of course the doubt snuck into her mind.

"Isn't this a little crazy?" she asked quietly.

"I'll let you in on another one of my special secrets," he said, tracing small patterns on her bare skin on her upper back, "Most things in life are crazy... but not everything is crazy, otherwise there'd be no such thing as it."

She widened her eyes and her mouth fell open as she giggled.

"What?" he asked.

"I've never heard you say anything so deep," she admired, resting her chin on his chest.

He smiled and began to play with her hair with his index finger, throwing it in front of her face which made her laugh.

"Stiles..." she said plainly.

"No, don't ruin it," he said sitting up and placing a finger to her lips.

She grabbed his hand and pulled it away, "You don't even know what I'm gonna say."

"Something along the lines of 'Stiles... this can't go on any more because I don't wanna see you get hurt'," he mocked, mimicking her tossing her hair over her shoulder flirtatiously.

She gasped, "I don't do that!"

"Yes you do," he smiled, kissing her forehead.

"Well what I was GOING to say was that Scott is going to kill us."

This stopped Stiles all together. He sat back and leaned against the headboard of the bed and took a very deep sigh. The one thing that she decided to complain about the morning after a glorious night together was the one thing that actually made sense. Stiles had really crossed a line here with his best friend in the whole entire world. Although, Scott WAS the center of Stiles's universe until Arielle stepped into his life.

"Stiles..." she said again, rubbing his arm softly.

"You're right," he mumbled, "Scott's never gonna trust me ever again..."

"So what are you thinking?" She pried, "Tell me..."

He looked at her and saw the places where her sweat had tried and her hair was messed up with tiny bits of it falling in her face. He saw how beautiful her skin looked against the sheets and how natural her face was in the morning.

"God you're so perfect..." he muttered, grazing her neck with his fingers, "I don't wanna know what's going to happen after the next few weeks, because I'm afraid that I might lose you. I say, we should make the most of the time we have left together, and THEN figure out what to do about your brother when we get home, okay?"

She nodded and touched his hand, pressing it up to her cheek and kissing his palm ever so gently. She pulled herself along with the sheets and adjusted herself so she leaned up against his shoulder with his arm wrapped around her.

"Hey..." he spoke, "Was last night... you know, was it okay for you?"

Arielle looked at his eyes then at his lips that were just there, teasing her, calling her to him like a homing beacon that attracted her.

"It was more than okay," she grinned, still staring at his lips.

"Well that's good," he smiled.

"That's fantastic," she teased, throwing her leg over his body and straddling her waist as she brought her lips back to his to satisfy her longing. When she kissed him, it was like she was the air she desperately needed to breathe in.

Stiles moved his hands down to her hips, already feeling her desire as she kissed him down from his lips to his jawbone and neck. It made him his muscles weaken and melt under her touch and he felt that fire begin to spark in him.

"You if you keep doing that," he moaned, "I'm never letting you leave this bed..."

"I'm fine with that," she whispered against his neck and shoulder, placing kisses up and down those areas that would make him give some kind of response back to her.

That was his invitation to push her over back onto her side of the bed so he was on top of her. It was better to appreciate every inch of her this way. He began kissing her neck without any warning, causing her back to arch, which only made him much more motivated to please her.

"Stiles..." she said breathlessly, "You should know... that danger follows me everywhere... I don't want you to get hurt-."

Stiles moved up to her face and pressed his forehead against hers, "Shut up," he demanded and kissed her with passion and desperation. He kissed her further and further down her body until he couldn't contain his lust any longer for her.

The way he fit into her was like a perfect puzzle piece, but Arielle already knew that. They moved the bed together, causing the headboard to hit against the wall several times. Arielle placed her hands on his back, gripping onto him tightly as he continued to please her and make her groan over and over again. Believe it or not, it was better the second time than it was the first time. The first time she was scared, but willing at the same time. Now she felt awakened, and so did Stiles. It was like their eyes had been opened after years of sleeping.

Arielle didn't want it to end, and it seemed to go on forever, like an endless session of pleasure. The sensation soon became too much for her to even hold still, so she pushed him down onto his back and began to take matters into her own hands, increasing the pleasurable moment for both of them.

"Shit..." he groaned.

She grinned and bit her lip before kissing him hard on his lips, then she moved to his neck against, nibbling ever so gently on the skin there as she was nothing but gentle with the rest of her body.

"That feel good?" she asked in a high, but seductive down against his neck.

"So good..." he moaned again, closing his eyes and interlacing his hand with hers.

This went on between the two of them until she fell beside him again, breathing heavily with a smile on her face and sweat dripping down her forehead. Stiles rolled over onto his side and chuckled at her as she stared at the ceiling.

"You are so bad..." he whispered into her ear, "I never knew that about you."

"I guess you're just a good influence on me," she grinned, leaning back onto her side again.

He pushed another piece of hair out of her face and kissed her, placing his hand on her hip where it fit so comfortably and perfectly. It was about an hour later when they fell back onto the bed in the same manner only more exhausted and happier.

"What a way to start a day off, don't you think?" she breathed, still panting as he chest rose up and down several times.

"You bet," he said in the same way, looking up at the ceiling as if he couldn't move any more after all of that time.

It took a little while before Arielle was asleep again. Stiles got up and put on some shorts before going into his suitcase, on the other side of that dreaded curtain, to get out some clothes he could wear for the day, although he was almost positive after all of that, he'd either be in those clothes all day, or he'd be taking them off within a matter of a few hours. That was really up to Arielle. It was only 10 in the morning, which meant that they must have woken up, originally, earlier than they thought. So, Stiles picked up some eggs form the fridge and began to throw some breakfast together. His dad had taught him a thing or two about making breakfast, so at least he could do that with some ease.

Arielle heard the sound of the stove on, so she too got out of bed and threw on Stiles's t-shirt that was lying on the floor from the previous night. She threw it on over her and she headed towards the kitchen where she saw Stiles standing at the stove over a pan. She snuck up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, placing tiny innocent kisses on his upper back to the back of his neck.

"What's that for?" he asked, grinning as he looked over his left shoulder.

"You're making breakfast," she smiled, "Nice effort."

"Why thank you," he smiled, holding up his spatula proudly, "I did make some eggs for you, but I know what you're favorite breakfast is."

Arielle leaned against the kitchen counter. Stiles couldn't help but notice how she looked like a super model, the way her legs were placed and the way her lips looked so perfect in comparison to the rest of her face. She saw the batter of pancake mix on the counter with tons of little dots inside.

"Blueberries," she smiled as he put the mix onto the pan.

Arielle threw herself into his arms and kissed his lips gently. He responded by wrapping his arms tightly around her body as if he had no intention of letting her go, "Is it possible to love you more?"

"I'm not so sure, but I'd like to see you try," he grinned, kissing her lips again.

She smiled against his lips with her forehead placed against his, "Wow... so now he's a smooth talker and he cooks... Stiles Stilinski, you're changing on me."

"Why Arielle McCall," he whispered back, "I don't see you picking daisies and singing amongst the woodland creatures any more."

"I never did that in the first place," she defended, rubbing her nose against his.

"You get what I mean," he laughed, "You're not the same sweet and innocent Arielle I met in the lake all that time ago... I wasn't aware of how much of a tigress you are in bed."

"I wasn't aware of that myself, to be perfectly honest," she replied, then placed a tiny kiss on his lips.

"Not to mention, you have an excellent taste in wardrobe," he said, looking down at the t-shirt she was wearing, "It looks much better than any tight dress you could wear."

"So no more tight dresses?" she raised her eyebrows.

"No, keep the tight dresses," he begged, "The tight dresses look nice on you... but maybe not quite as nice as this does."

He leaned his head down and began to kiss along her jawline to her ear, whispering in a deep and low tone, "You're so sexy like this... in my shirt..." his voice sent shivers up and down her arms, and he saw them and smiled at it, "It's so hot to know that just by whispering in your ear I can turn you on..."

"Stiles," she breathed.

"Yes, sweetheart?" he asked in the same voice, his lips kissing her neck in the spot that always made her melt in his arms.

Arielle wrapped her arms around Stiles's neck as tight as she could so she could wrap her legs around his waist, feeling as much friction as she could between their two bodies and getting rid of all that sexual frustration that led up to this day. He placed her on the counter so she could be more easily accessible to him.

"I want you so bad..." she whispered as his lips moved under her chin to the other side of her neck while his hands rubbed her upper and inner thighs at a teasingly slow place.

"I know you do," he replied.

Arielle threw her head against his shoulder and took a deep breath, then smelling something weird in the air, like the tiniest hint of smoke.

"Honey," she said urgently, patting on his shoulder. Stiles looked over at the stove and remembered that he had set a pancake there over a burning stove. He shut it off immediately and the two of them laughed.

"Maybe it's time for me to take a shower," she laughed.

"What an excellent idea," Stiles said, picking up the spatula again, "Breakfast will be served unburned by the time you're out."

"You're so good to me," she said, kissing his cheek before heading back to the other side of the cabin the the bathroom.

Before she went into the bathroom, she stopped and looked at the mess that was all over the floor. Except this was a good mess. The sheets were all over the bed and on the floor and there were pieces of her clothing on either side of the bed. She leaned up against the wall and bit her lip while remembering everything that had changed in just a few hours. It was like a dream that she would never wake up from.


	20. Chapter 20

Arielle had decided not to take time to run a blow dryer through her hair. Instead, she just put her wet hair up in a bun and she changed into some sweats that she found on the top of the clothes in her suitcase. Now she was sitting at the table, indulging in the blueberry pancakes that Stiles had made for her. They ate in silence because her mouth was too full of food constantly for her to say anything.

"Enjoying your food?" Stiles chuckled.

She looked up at him and grinned, followed by a cute little nod before she returned back to her breakfast and chugged down half the glass of milk next to her plate.

"Can I ask you something?" Stiles asked, anxiously tapping his fingers against the table.

"What's up?" she asked, taking another sip of her milk.

"Are you...uh..." he sighed and scratched his nose a few times, "Are you happy here? Right now?"

"I don't see how I can't be," she said sweetly, "I mean, I'm in the middle of a beautiful forest in sunny California for 2 more weeks with blueberry pancakes and a hot guy who loves me... I'm perfect."

He shook his head, "You were perfect before you had all those things."

Arielle blushed and hid her face by looking back down at her plate while trying to hold in the flirtatious giggle.

"Come here..." Stiles whispered, patting his lap and opening his arms to her.

She put her fork down almost immediately and walked over to him and placed herself on his lap so his arm stretched across her and held her outer leg securely in his hand while she wrapped her arms around his neck. He seemed happy enough just to have her there so close to him and feel the warmth of her skin against him. That was all he needed.

"So tell me about this hot guy who's in love with you," he teased, "I'd like to know who I'm up against."

Arielle giggled and threw her head into his shoulder, "Oh no one... just my boyfriend..."

"Your boyfriend, huh?" he grinned, "Is he taller than me?"

"No," she laughed, "He's about your height, he has brown eyes, dark hair, he's a little pale, but he's got killer good looks and a gorgeous smile to go along with it."

"Oh really?"

"Yes really... he's also super funny and sweet..."

"Does he kiss better than me?"

She shook her head. Stiles grinned and began to push his lips forward towards Arielle's, but she put her index finger in front of him to stop him while she bit on her bottom lip with a devious look on her face.

"I'm just going to go get dressed," she said, getting up off his lap and laughing as she took the curtain and pulled it to the side to block her area of the room from his.

"I don't see why you need that," Stiles called, "I'm just going to watch your shadow anyway."

Arielle rolled her eyes and just continued to get dressed anyway, disregarding his snarky and confident comment. It wasn't like she was going to do anything special while she was changing, like exaggerate a certain movement of hers. He didn't really care if she took off her shirt like some supermodel. The one thing he didn't want her to do was be something she wasn't, because he loved her for being exactly who she was. It was when she had taken both her shirt and sweatshirt off to look through her suitcase when Stiles pushed the curtain past him and walked ever so slowly towards her. Arielle knew exactly what was happening, but she was too in love to stop it, so she pushed all of her hair over to rest on one shoulder, exposing the skin under her bra strap.

As Stiles came closer to her, he rested his fingers on her arms and started to feel up and down the soft skin, then he pushed the strap out of his way and began to breathe gently on her skin between her shoulder and neck and place small kisses up and down her neck to her ear then back down again.

"Why don't we do something today that doesn't involve this kinda stuff..." she said, throwing her head slightly back.

"But isn't this the more fun stuff?" he whispered against her neck as he planted bigger kisses on her favorite spot.

"We also have all the time in the world to do this," she argued, even though she was already beginning to melt at his touch. Each time she protested, his kisses became more intense, which felt better and better to her.

"Yeah... we do..."

Arielle turned around and looked into Stiles's brown eyes as they fixated on hers. She watched how he looked at her with a kind of passion that was irreplaceable and unforgettable. It wasn't just lust that was in his eyes, but he was so terribly in love. It was like he was drowning from being so in love, but he didn't want anyone to lift him back up to the surface.

"What the hell," Arielle shrugged and threw his shirt over his head before he kissed her again, this time with much more intent, and they fell onto the bed again.

Some time past and they were back in that same state on the bed, tired, but in the best way possible, wearing nothing but a thin sheet of sweat and out of breath. It took them a few minutes for them to catch their breath until they were breathing normally and not quite as loudly. That's when Stiles turned over on his side, facing Arielle.

"I have to admit," he said, "all this happening right now feels sort of bizarre."

"Bizarre?" Arielle asked, raising her eyebrows, "and what do you mean by that?"

"I mean... it's like a dream," he shrugged, "A crazy, wonderful dream."

Arielle rolled onto her side as well, "Well then I am in the greatest whack job on the entire face of the planet if falling in love with you is crazy."

Stiles looked up and down her body underneath the sheets and smiled at her.

"What?" she asked, slightly worried at the devious look in his eyes.

"Get changed," he said, throwing the sheets off of him.

"Why?" Arielle inquired, sitting up and holding the sheets to her chest.

"Because you and I are gonna do something today," he said, pulling on some shorts and a t-shirt.

"Like what?"

"You'll see."

He winked at her and she fell back on the bed. Now that she thought about it, her tired bones made her feel like staying in bed with him all day was a great idea. She saw Stiles put on his swim trunks and she suddenly felt so afraid in her own skin as she sank back onto the bed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting on her side of the bed.

"You're seriously making me go back out there?" she trembled.

"Last time won't be like this time," he assured her, taking her hand in his, "I'll be right by your side the whole time."

"Stiles, if I can't go back into the water, it's for a reason... there is SOMETHING in there that wants me dead."

"Fortunately, you can't drown in water," he said, playfully poking her nose, "So whatever was after you, CLEARLY wasn't trying to kill you."

Arielle sat up, bunching the sheets closer to her shoulders as she looked at the bed and how much safer it would be if she stayed right where she was.

"You don't have to go all the way in," he said, touching her chin gently, "At least sit on the dock with me and get some sun? That way I can still be close to you."

She sat up and ran her hands through her hair several times, then groaned, "Ugh. Fine."

Stiles cheered to himself, and then scurried over to the bed, kissing Arielle on the cheek, then running to her suitcase and throwing her one-piece swimsuit at her, landing directly in her face. Arielle wasn't comfortable with the idea at all, but she did trust Stiles, and that was really enough to rely on for now.

The two of them reached the dock, Arielle holding onto Stiles's arm as she watched the gently moving water with cautious eyes, taking smaller steps as she grew closer to the edge.

"I've changed my mind," she said, letting go of his arm and marching back towards the house, "I can't do this..."

Stiles quickly did a double take and followed her, reaching down to grab her hand, which made her stop walking, but her back was still facing him.

"Arielle McCall," he whispered gently, moving his hand towards himself, hoping that she would follow him, and she did, slowly turning herself to face him, but she was staring at his neck and collar bone. Stiles placed the tips of his fingers along her jawline, "Look at me..." he whispered, "I promise you... that from this moment on... I'm not gonna let anyone take you away from me."

Arielle looked down at his other hand and picked it up, clutching both his hands tightly and looking up into his brown eyes, nodding her head slowly.

Stiles walked carefully backwards, learning his lesson from the first time, and looked over his shoulder a few times. He stepped down onto the latter carefully, then let her sit down on the edge of the dock. He then fell into the water and held himself onto the edge, moving his hands to her waist as he assisted her into the water beside him. Once the cool liquid enveloped her body, she clutched tightly to Stiles as if letting go, for even a second, would kill her.

"Relax..." he whispered, feeling her shaking and shivering body against his and pressing his forehead to hers, "Shhh," he said comfortingly, "I'm right here, you don't have to worry."

He stroked the top of her dry head as he felt her shaking begin to calm, but her breathing picked up.

"You're doing it," he encouraged her, "Look, you're back in the water and you're safe."

She looked around her, then back up at him, "I am?"

He nodded and smiled, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, "You are."

A smile started to grow across her face once she got more comfortable. Stiles could even feel her grip getting looser on him. She floated away from him briefly and moved in a small circle once, trying to get used to the feeling of the current working against her body as she floated against it. Arielle then threw herself back at Stiles, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, and her legs wrapping around his waist like a koala bear on a tree. She had a smile on her face, which was like watching heaven's gates reopen.

It wasn't long at all before their lips met again in a slow and tender embrace. With Stiles standing on the sand in the more shallow area of the lake and Arielle clinging herself to him, it seemed like the perfect setting for Arielle's ideal romance. There was her home, in the water, and there was the man she yearned for the most, all at the same time.

As their lips left each other, Arielle's eyes still remained closed, still lingering in the moment, but Stiles opened his eyes and bit his bottom lip as he grinned. He then took Arielle's body and dunked her under the water, causing her to break free of her grasp on him and shake her body uncontrollably until her head reached the surface again, gasping for air as she clung to Stiles again, breathing with fright.

"Are you okay?" he asked, apologetically, "Did I scare you?"

Arielle seemed to be looking at him with frightened eyes, but that quickly changed when she jumped up and dunked his head under the water. He rose up again with a laugh and shook his head like a wet dog, making Arielle flinch a little bit with the small bits of water flying on her face.

The scene faded into a cold evening inside the cabin with a roaring fire. The slight breeze of the night came in through the screen door of the cabin while Arielle was wrapped in a blanket that reached across Stiles's lap. Her head was resting against his chest as they both looked at the fire, both of them smelling like lake water while her hair was nearly dry.

"Stiles..." she whispered, not turning her attention away from the fire.

"Hm?" he responded, rubbing his thumb slowly and gently against her body.

"Scott's visiting tomorrow," she said quietly, "What are we gonna do?"

Stiles sighed. Arielle knew this was a hard question when she felt his thumb cease its movements. She looked up at him with concern.

"I can tell you one thing," he said, "He's not gonna like knowing that his best friend is sleeping with his sister."

"Well... yeah," she shrugged, "but he should understand..."

"You think he will?"

"Yeah..." she said, moving her hand to touch his cheek, "because this is more than just sex... right?"

"Of course," he insisted, sitting her up so he could look at her directly in her eyes. He placed both of his hands on either side of her face, "Arielle Marisa... I've only been in love with one girl my entire life, but I had no idea what love really was... and I love you... I'm so in love with you that it's painfully cheesy."

Arielle laughed and threw her head into his shoulder, "That was so cheesy."

"See?" he chuckled, "I told you!"

He planted a kiss on her forehead, creating a moment of silence between them.

"Stiles?" she asked again, but neither of them moving a muscle, "Can you just hold me tonight...?"

Stiles looked back in her eyes, then readjusted himself so she could fit perfectly in his arms, accompanied by the sound of the roaring fire.

He whispered back at her, "Always..."


	21. Chapter 21

Morning had come and Arielle lay in bed in shorts and a tank top, fully rested in the arms of a sleeping Stiles, who was heavily breathing with his mouth wide open, a bit of drool falling out of the corner of his mouth. Thankfully it was on the other side of his mouth so it wasn't as obvious to her. As the sun trickled in through the blinds on the windows, Arielle untangled herself from Stiles's arms, leaving him heavily sleeping like a fallen log in the woods. She stretched her arms up, then to the right, and lastly to the left, then she ran her fingers through her tangled hair, which had a lingering aroma of lake water from the previous day. She got up out of bed and rubbed her eyes a few times as she stepped into the light towards the bathroom.

Getting a decent hot shower out of the bathroom looked like a difficult task, considering that the shower system was only a tub, a sliding wall, and a cheap, thin shower head that shook when it was first turned on. However, Arielle found it easily enjoyable once the water was set to the right warm temperature. This kind of contact seemed to be better than submerging herself in the water, because of the way it drowned her, but left her some air at the same time. As the steam started to build up, she felt a pair of hands reach her sides, grabbing a hold of her waist and feeling up and down her curves. This was soon accompanied by a pair of lips grazing her neck, causing Arielle to release a small, but crystal clear, moan from her lips.

"I know how to make you melt with one touch," he growled proudly, making the kiss up her neck more intense.

"One of these days, I'm no longer going to be turned on by that," she moaned softly, throwing her head back and closing her eyes, her voice growing weaker as she tried to speak, "One day you'll just... come up to me and... kiss my neck just like that... and I won't do a damn thing about it..."

That's when he moved one of his hands from her waist to her stomach, smoothing it down her tanned skin until he reached her center, rubbing her folds ever so gently, making her more and more anxious for him to go further. That subtle bite to her lower lip and the slight arcing of her back gave him the signal to reach his fingers inside her and feel her wetness on some of his fingers, while his index finger found her small bundle of nerves and pushed against it, creating a louder moan from her.

Even though she felt herself losing all of her strength and gaining all of her passionate sexual desire, she had to at least play around with him, even if it was for a brief moment.

"Stiles..." she moaned, "Scott's coming to visit us today... we don't wanna get caught, do we?"

He shook his head, his eyes still looking down at her as he kissed up to her ear, the hot water running down his body only adding to the incredible heat between them.

"That won't be for at least... another hour," he whispered into her ear, his breath sending chills down her spine, which he felt against his body, "So we have all that time to do whatever we want..." he pressed a little harder against her core, circling his fingers a little bit, which caused her to moan his name again, but this time it was more a mumble, like she was speechless, "Tell me what you want..."

Arielle grabbed a hold of his hand and turned herself so she was facing him with his wrist in her hand tightly, her eyes completely wrapped in lust and temptation. She pressed her body against his, her hands grabbing onto his shoulders as she made her way towards his ear, whispering to him, "I want you to throw me against the wall... and I want you to have your way with me..."

He wasted no time after that. He picked her up by her waist, his member already hard just by the sound of her previous moans, and slammed her back against the wall, kissing her chest, to her collar bone, to her neck once again. Seconds later, he was already inside her, savoring the amazing feeling of their connection. He had savored it so much that it caused him to throw his head back as he thrusted slowly in and out of her. Arielle was breathing in synch with him, gasping once or twice from the sensation, followed by a drawn out moan.

"Stiles..." she moaned, breathlessly. It took her a few moments to gather what she was going to say to him, but her mind was abandoning all other thoughts that had nothing to do with this moment, and so she bent her head down to meet his and kissed him passionately, whispering against his lips, "More..."

He never needed to be told twice. When she told him she wanted more, e knew exactly what she meant by that, and started thrusting with wild abandon, causing even louder moans and groans to come out of both of their mouths as they moved together, the hot water making even more steam in the bathroom.

They both came undone together. Neither of them were a moment to soon or too late. That's how it always happened between them, miraculously enough. Arielle was set on her feet, her knees weakening as Stiles caught her with a smile on his face, both of them completely out of breath. There was nothing else to do except kiss until the exhaustion wore off, but they didn't have that kind of time anymore, because Arielle jumped once she heard the slightest noise in the far off distance.

"What's wrong?" Stiles asked, rubbing her forearm.

"Scott," she panicked, "He's here."

"What?" he shouted, his eyes widening, "He's early! Why!?"

"I don't know!" Arielle cried, "What are we gonna do?!"

Stiles held her firmly in front of him, "You are going to finish washing your hair. I got this."

He quickly kissed her lips and jumped out of the shower door, grabbing his cold and damp swim trunks from the towel rack where they had been drying, and put them on. He figured he probably had a good 10 seconds before Scott could see anything going on with the cabin, so he ran outside as fast as he could and threw himself into the lake.

Thankfully, by the time the water had settled and he had been in the water for a good amount of time, Scott came into view.

"Hey Scott!" Stiles waved, swimming towards the latter.

"Hey man," Scott said, smiling and running towards the edge of the dock, helping Stiles out of the water, "How's the water?"

"A little chilly this morning, actually," Stiles shrugged, "I just thought I'd get a morning swim in or something."

"Looks like fun," Scott encouraged.

_You don't know the half of it_, he thought, putting all thoughts of the past few days behind him before anything could slip out.

"Yeah it is," Stiles nodded instead.

They walked into the cabin and Scott saw Stiles's curtain pushed back and Arielle's clothes all piled up on top of her suitcase. Thank god they didn't sleep together the previous night, otherwise, his clothes would be on the floor too, and Scott would certainly get suspicious at that.

"So where's Arielle?" Scott asked.

"I think she's in the shower," Stiles said, scratching the back of his head, "I honestly don't know where else she would be, considering the water is running and she's not asleep."

"Okay, then I'll wait," Scott said, making his way towards the kitchen table.

"Why? What's up?" Stiles asked, following him.

Scott took a seat at the table and leaned against it, "We've been doing a little digging and we think we may have figured out what's happening to her."

"You think?" Stiles asked, taking a seat on the other side of the table.

"Yeah," Scott nodded, "but since Arielle left Beacon Hills, there's been a shortage in the town's water supply. My dad and your dad traced it all to one water source, the pipes of a local outdoor pool."

"Did you figure out what that could mean?" a female's voice called from the other side of the cabin.

Arielle came out of the bathroom, her wet hair tied up in a bunny tail bun on her head with her tank top and sweats on.

"It tells us something," Scott explained, "someone wants to use all of that water supply against you, Arielle. We're not sure why, and we're not sure who, but we're getting there-."

"I know who it is..." Arielle said quietly, staring at the floor.

Stiles's fists clenched together, "Who?"

"The Nereid," she said, looking to her brother, "They're water nymphs too. There are two types of water nymphs, the Nereids and the Oceanids..."

"When Poseidon's kingdom was under attack," Stiles added, "He gave Oceanids the most powerful gift of protection; an identification spell on their eyes so they could tell any species just by looking at them..."

"Well the Nereids were jealous," Arielle continued, "They were water nymphs, but they weren't nearly as loved by Poseidon as they wanted to be, so several of them tried to kill the Oceanids in their sleep, but their new gift of defense and sight made it impossible for the Nereids to succeed. If there really isn't anyone I know who would want to hurt me for any other reason, then this has to be the explanation."

Scott stood up and walked slowly towards her, cautiously rubbing her arms, "You don't need to be afraid of them..."

"I'm not," she said proudly, but calmly.

"Good," he nodded, "Do you know how to defeat them?"

"Yes..." she answered quietly, "Lure them... give them a target to hit. Once they get a goal, they'll follow it until they've succeeded. Give them a target of interest, and then you can fight them and win."

Scott nodded and kissed her forehead, then wrapped his arms around his little sister, nearly crushing her, but she really didn't mind.

"This'll all be over soon," he promised her.

"Take your time," Arielle insisted.

They took a step away from each other and sighed together before Scott turned to Stiles and hugged him briefly, then stepped out of the cabin, letting the screen door slam behind him. The rough sound of the door hitting the wood made Arielle's body shake as though that door had hit her behind her back and she didn't see it coming. She fell to the ground, clutching her heart as she felt the air escaping her lungs. It wasn't because there was another curse set upon her. If there was, she wouldn't know why this was happening to her again, but she did know. Arielle was terrified because she knew there was only one way to keep the Nereid off her tail, and that was not an option she was open to just yet.


End file.
